HZ  ■'/AISHNAVA 
;OL,Y    LAN  D 


T-;  ii .  scdT-r: 


^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^(jf 

Purchased   by  the  Hamill   Missionary   Fund. 

n--     BLI2.45 

Division 4iwt<.."?-".  ^^  j 

Seciion  Ky....'D  ^  ^^ 


HARDINGE  GATE,  THE  PRINCIPAL  ENTRANCE  TO  THE  CITY 

OF    MATHURA 

(It  is  now  surmounted  by  a  clock.) 


x^^' 


v/  (       DFC    4    1916 

BRAJ      ^^^/ /-.  :m  - 


THE  VAISHNAVA  HOLY  LAND 
A  Jubilee  Volume 


Rev.  J.  E.  SCOTT,  Ph.D.,  S.T.D. 

Author  of  "  In  Famine  Land,"  "  The  India  Mission,"  etc 


NEW  YORK:    EATON  &  MAINS 
CINCINNATI:  JENNINGS  &  GRAHAM 


Copyright,  1906,  by 
EATON  &  MAINS. 


PREFACE 


The  author's  purpose  in  preparing  this 
brief  brochure  is  fourfold:  First,  to  give  a 
short  account  of  an  interesting  land  and  its 
paramount  religion.  Second,  to  show  that 
this  religion  has  deteriorated  with  age,  and 
that  the  most  modern  form  of  it  is  the  most 
corrupt.  Hinduism  is  worse  than  Brahman- 
ism,  and  the  more  modem  Krishnaism  is  the 
grossest  form  of  Hinduism.  Third,  to  con- 
trast with  the  Hinduism  of  to-day — with  the 
latter-day  Krishna  cultus — the  purer  and  no- 
bler religion  of  Christ,  and  with  the  puerile 
narratives  of  the  Puranas  the  exalted  teach- 
ings of  the  gospels.  And,  lastly,  to  show  the 
triumphs  of  the  nobler  faith  in  the  very 
stronghold  of  Hinduism,  where  for  centuries 
it  has  been  fortified  by  tradition,  custom, 
wealth,  and  the  prestige  of  a  dominant  and 
bigoted  priesthood. 

Modern  Hinduism  presents  no  greater  at- 
traction to  the  masses  than  this  land  of  Braj. 
It  is  the  Vaishnava  Holy  Land.    To  this  land 


4  Preface 

flow  annually  many  thousands  of  grossly  de- 
luded but  often  sincere  devotees.  To  enter 
this  land  and  establish  itself  at  its  very  center 
and  endeavor  to  cope  with  and  overcome  its 
stupendous  errors  has  been  the  herculean  task 
of  that  purer  faith  whose  Founder  descended 
from  heaven  and  overcame  the  world.  More 
really  than  the  Kurus  and  Pandavas  met  on 
the  battlefield  of  Kurukshetra,  here  Christ  and 
Krishna  have  met. 

The  author  endeavors  to  show  briefly  some- 
thing of  the  physical,  traditional,  historical, 
and  religious  features  of  the  land,  and  to  re- 
cord the  initiation,  evolution,  and  establish- 
ment of  a  mission  acknowledging  and  follow- 
ing the  one  true  Incarnation. 

In  preparing  the  first  part,  pertaining  to  the 
field  and  its  cult,  the  author  is  indebted  espe- 
cially to  Growse's  Memoirs,  Thornton's  Gazet- 
teer, and  Cunningham's  Archaeological  Report, 
and  in  preparing  the  second  part,  concern- 
ing the  mission,  he  has  been  helped  by  one 
who  was  associated  with  him  continuously 
in  the  work  from  its  beginning  in  1888,  and 
to  whose  coordinate  labors  much  of  its  suc- 
cess must  be  attributed.    • 

Ajmere,  Rajputana,  India, 
January,  1906. ' 


CONTENTS 


Preface 8 

PART  FIRST 

The  Land  and  the  Religion 
I.  The  Land 11 

1.  Its  Earliest  Mention. 

2.  Traditional  Account. 

3.  Its  Geographical  Description. 

4.  Its  Flora  and  Fauna. 

5.  Its  People. 

6.  Its  Religion. 

II.  Its  Tutelary  Divinity 24 

1.  His  Popularity. 

2.  Modern  Accretions. 

3.  The  Krishna  Legends. 

4.  Names  and  Appearance  of  Krishna. 

5.  Manner  of  Worship. 

6.  Krishna  and  Christ. 


6  Contents 

III.  Its  Capital 39 

1.  Its  History. 

(1)  Traditional. 

(2)  Buddhist  Mathura. 

(3)  Hindu  Mathura. 

(4)  Mohammedan  Mathura. 

(5)  Modern  Mathura. 

2.  Its  Appearance  and  Population. 

3.  Sacred  Places. 

IV.  The  Haunts  and  Homes  of  Krishna 55 

1.  The  Ban  Jathra. 

2.  Maholi. 

3.  Gobardhana. 

4.  Barsana. 

5.  Nandgawn. 

6.  Brindaban. 

(1)  Description. 

(2)  The  Older  Temples. 

(3)  Modern  Temples. 

(4)  Tanks. 

(5)  Ghats. 

7.  Baladeva. 

8.  Mahaban. 

9.  Gokula. 

V.  The  Later  Vaishnava  Sects 81 

1.  Hinduism  Changeable. 

2.  The  Modern  Sects. 

(1)  The  Sri  Vaishnavas. 

(2)  The  Nimbaraks. 

(3)  The  Madhva  Vaishnavas. 

(4)  The      Vishnu      Swamis      (Vallabha 

Charyas). 

(5)  Other  Sects. 


Contents  7 

PART  SECOND 

The  Mission 
I.  The  Founding  of  a  Mission 95 

1.  How  It  Came  to  Be. 

2.  As  It  Was  in  the  Beginning. 

3.  Providential  Help. 

4.  Hopeful  Outlook. 

II.  The  Evolution  of  a  Mission 108 

1.  Expansion. 

2.  Mathura  Institutions. 

(1)  The  Deaconess  Home. 

(2)  The  Training  School. 

(3)  Flora  Hall. 

(4)  Gracie  Hall. 

(5)  Dormitories. 

(6)  Smith  Hall. 

3.  English  Work. 

4.  Medical  Work. 

5.  The  School  of  the  Prophets. 

6.  School  for  Evangelist  Teachers. 

7.  The  Melas. 

8.  Years  of  Toil. 

9.  Woman's  Work. 

III.  The  Establishment  of  a  Mission 173 

1.  Retrospection. 

2.  District  Formed. 

3.  Mathura  District. 

4.  Prospects. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


The   Hardinge  Gate Frontispiece 

Facing  Page 

Statue  of  the   jaina  Tirthamkar  Padma-prab- 

hanatha 20 

Panoramic  View  of    Mathura 30 

Visrant  Ghat,  Mathura 40 

Visrant  and  other  Ghats  on  the  Jamuna 50 

The  Temple  of  Dwarkhadis,  Mathura 60 

Sati  Burj,  Mathura 70 

Asikimda  Bazar,  Mathura 78 

The  Manasi  Ganga,  Gobardhana 90 

The  Temple  of  Gobind  Deva,  Brindaban 100 

The  Seths'  Temple,  Brindaban no 

Dhvaja  Stambha,  Brindaban -. 120 

Chhatthi  Palna,  Mahaban 130 

The    Deaconess    Home    and    Training    School. 

Mathura ,  140 

Side  View  of  Flora    Hall 150 

A  Native  Camp  Meeting 158 

Mission  House,  Brindaban ,..   168 

Christian  Workers  at   Mathura 178 

Map — Braj  :     The    VaiBnava    Holy    Land,  fol- 
lowing    181 


PART  FIRST 

THE  LAND  AND  THE 
RELIGION 


"A  fine  country  of  many  pasture  lands  and  well- 
nurtured  people,  full  of  ropes  for  tethering  cattle, 
resonant  with  the  voice  of  the  sputtering  chum,  and 
flowing  with  buttermilk;  where  the  soil  is  ever 
moist  with  milky  froth,  and  the  stick  with  its  cir- 
cling cord  sputters  merrily  in  the  pail,  as  the  g^rls 
spin  it  round." — Harivansa. 


BRAJ 

THE  VAISHNAVA  HOLY   LAND 


PART  FIRST 
The  Land  and  the  Religion 


I 
The  Land 


I.  Its  Earliest  Mention.  Perhaps  the  earH- 
est  mention  of  the  kingdom  of  Mathura  is 
found  in  the  Vishnu  and  Bhagavat  Purana 
and  in  the  Harivansa,  a  comparatively  mod- 
ern sequel  to  the  Mahabharata,  in  which  it  is 
related  that  the  giant  king  Madhu  lived  and 
reigned  in  the  forest  of  Madhuban  and 
founded  the  city  of  Madhupuri,  which,  upon 
his  death,  passed  to  his  son,  Lavana,  in  the 
days  of  Rama,  the  king  of  Ajudhiya,  the 
modern  Oudh.  The  daring  Lavana,  with 
more  zeal  than  judgment,  having  challenged 
Rama  to  single  combat,  and  the  latter  hav- 


12  BrAJ 

ing  disdained  to  meet  Lavana  personally,  sent 
his  youngest  brother,  Satrughna,  who  slew 
the  giant,  cut  down  the  forest,  and  founded 
the  kingdom  of  Mathura,  the  capital,  of  the 
same  name,  occupying  the  site  now  occupied 
by  the  village  of  Maholi,  about  five  miles 
south  of  the  present  city  and  about  the  same 
distance  west  of  the  Jamuna  River. 

2.  Traditional  Account.  In  a  land  like  In- 
dia, where  the  historic  faculty  is  so  singularly 
defective,  it  is  difficult  to  know  where  history 
ends  and  legend  begins,  or,  indeed,  whether 
there  is  any  foundation  in  fact  in  any  of  the 
elaborate  stories  so  universally  beheved.  The 
story  goes  that  at  a  very  remote  period  a 
branch  of  the  great  Aryan  Yadav  family,  of 
the  Lunar  race,  settled  along  the  well-wooded 
banks  of  the  Jamuna  River  and  made  Mathura 
their  capital  city.  This  peaceful  kingdom  was 
called  Surasena,  and  the  inhabitants  thereof 
Surasenaka.  It  would  appear  that  at  a  cer- 
tain period,  but  nobody  knows  when,  after 
Satrughna,  the  brother  of  Rama,  had  de- 
parted, Bhima,  the  third  in  descent  from  Yadu, 
the  son  of  Haryasva,  the  founder  of  Gobar- 
dhana,  annexed  Mathura,  and  the  kingdom 
continued  in  that  dynasty  until  the  time  of 
Vasadeva,  the  father  of  Krishna.     In  those 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         13 

latter  days,  some  would  say  three  thousand 
years  ago,  the  rightful  ruler,  Ugrasen,  was  de- 
posed by  his  tyrannical  son,  Kansa,  who  him- 
self usurped  the  throne  and  ruled  with  such 
cruelty  and  injustice  that  the  people  cried  for 
help.  It  was  then  that  Krishna,  the  usurper's 
cousin,  arose,  slew  the  tyrant,  and  reinstated 
Ugrasen,  the  legitimate  king.  This  story  may 
not  be  historically  correct,  but  it  is  interesting 
as  legend  and  because  it  is  believed  by  the 
masses  of  the  people. 

3.  Its  Geographical  Description.  The  king- 
dom of  Mathura  was  early  known  as  the  land 
of  Braj.  It  is  thought  by  some  that  the  name 
is  derived  from  Vajra,  who,  upon  the  death  of 
Krishna,  became  king  of  Mathura.  This  der- 
ivation, however,  rests  upon  very  doubtful 
premises,  both  historically  and  philologically, 
for  the  Vajra  mentioned  in  the  Vishnu  Purana 
may  not  have  been  king  of  Mathura,  and  sim- 
ilarity of  sound  does  not  necessarily  establish 
identity  of  meaning.  It  is  more  likely,  as 
Growse  points  out,  that  the  word  is  derived 
from  the  Sanskrit  root  Vraj,  which  primarily 
means  "a  herd,"  and  then  "to  go,"  having  ref- 
erence to  the  nomadic  character  of  the  shep- 
herds who  occupied  these  pasture  lands  in  ''ye 
olden  time,"  they  being  compelled  to  move 


14  Braj 

about,   like   Abraham   and  Jacob   of  old^,   in 
search  of  pasture  for  their  flocks. 

The  present  civil  district  of  Mathura  is  a 
part  of  the  Agra  political  division  of  the 
United  Provinces  of  Agra  and  Oudh,  and, 
although  there  are  indications  that  in  earlier 
times  the  annual  "perambulation"  made  by  the 
pilgrims  encompassed  a  larger  area,  it  would 
appear  to  be  about  the  same  in  size  and  shape 
as  the  ancient  Vaishnava  Holy  Land.  It  is, 
roughly  speaking,  a  parallelogram  in  shape, 
some  forty-two  miles  long  and  thirty  miles 
wide,  intersected  by  the  river  Jamuna,  which 
flows  from  north  to  south.  Mathura,  the  cap- 
ital, occupies  the  right  bank  of  the  river  near 
the  southern  limit  of  the  district.  The  district 
is  divided  into  five  townships,  or  political  divi- 
sions for  administrative  purposes,  which  have 
names,  location,  and  population  as  follows: 
On  the  right  bank,  Kosi  (446,521)  and  Chhata 
(173756),  and  on  the  left  bank,  Mat  (97,- 
370),  Mahaban  (136,566),  and  Saadabad 
(108,886).  The  district  lies  between  2/  14" 
and  27'  58"  north  latitude,  and  7/  19"  and 
78'  33"  east  longitude,  and  is  bounded  on  the 
north  by  Aligarh  and  Gurgaon  civil  districts, 
on  the  east  by  Aligarh  and  Mainpuri  and  Etah 
districts,  on  the  south  by  Agra  district,  and  on 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         15 

the  west  by  the  feudatory  state  of  Bharatpur. 
It  has  an  area  of  1,457  square  miles  and  a  pop- 
ulation of  763,099,  the  vast  majority  of  whom 
are  Vaishnava  Hindus.  This  comprises  the 
Vaishnava  Holy  Land,  the  famous  Braj  Man- 
dal,  or  circuit  of  84  kos,  or  168  miles,  made 
by  the  zealous  Vaishnava  pilgrims,  and  here, 
legend  affirms,  lived  and  grazed  their  herds 
the  deified  brothers  Krishna  and  Bala  Rama, 
the  Apollo  and  Hercules  of  India. 

The  physical  features  of  this  land  of  Braj 
are,  generally  speaking,  somewhat  disappoint- 
ing. Farther  east  the  country  is  more  fruitful 
and  covered  with  rich  mango  groves,  and  at 
one  time  the  traditional  description  of  Braj,  as 
covered  with  forests  and  rich  pasture  lands, 
may  have  been  true,  but  at  the  present  time 
the  land  is  flat  and  uninteresting.  There  are 
a  few  large  towns,  as  Mathura,  Brindaban, 
Gobardhan,  Kosi,  etc.,  but  the  villages  in  which 
the  masses  of  the  people  live  are  of  the  ordi- 
nary type,  a  mere  cluster  of  three  or  four  hun- 
dred small  hovels  built  of  mud  and  thatched 
with  grass.  The  mud  is  dug  from  one  side  of 
the  site  on  which  the  village  is  built,  forming 
a  tank  which  fills  with  water  during  the  rainy 
season  and  over  which  a  green  scum  forms  in 
the  dry  weather,  and  from  which  the  cattle, 


i6  Braj 

and  some  of  the  people  even,  drink,  and  in 
which  they  wash  their  clothes.  There  is  no 
regularity  in  the  street,  the  houses  being  built 
at  all  angles,  but  there  is  usually  one  main, 
crooked  street  running  through  the  town  on 
which  are  some  small  shops,  open  at  the  front, 
in  which  are  displayed  such  wares  and  articles 
of  merchandise  as  flour,  sugar,  tobacco,  spices, 
clothing,  etc.  In  modern  times  the  district  has 
been  greatly  improved  by  the  opening  of  the 
Delhi  road,  constructed  as  a  relief  work  during 
the  famine  of  1860-61.  This  road,  in  the  main, 
follows  the  older  imperial  thoroughfare  men- 
tioned by  John  de  List  in  163 1,  and  there  are 
still  to  be  seen  some  of  the  old  pillars  which 
mark  the  course  of  the  road.  But  especially 
helpful  have  been  the  Agra  irrigating  canal, 
which  traverses  the  entire  length  of  the  west- 
ern side  of  the  district,  and  the  Cawnpur  and 
Achynera  branch  of  the  Rajputana  Malwa 
Railway,  which  passes  through  Mathura,  with 
a  branch  from  Mathura  to  Brindaban  for  pil- 
grims. A  chord  line  extension  of  the  Great 
Indian  Peninsula  Railway,  connecting  Delhi 
and  Agra,  has  just  been  completed  and  passes 
through  the  capital,  and  a  more  important  line, 
extending  from  that  city  to  Nagda  in  the 
south,  is  under  construction. 


The  Land  and  the  Religion        17 

4.  Its  Flora  and  Fauna.  On  account  of  the 
unsuitability  and  poverty  of  the  soil  there  are 
not  now  many  large  trees  in  the  land  of  Braj. 
The  mango  and  the  shesham,  found  plentifully 
a  little  farther  east,  in  the  Doah,  are,  for  the 
most  part,  absent,  and  in  their  place  may  be 
found  the  less  valuable  Nim,  Far  ash,  Kadamb, 
and  Babul,  and  different  specimens  of  the  fig 
tree,  as  the  Ficits  Religiosa  and  the  Ficus  In- 
diciis.  The  rural  population  are  agricultur- 
ists, and  the  soil  is  divided  as  to  its  productive- 
ness and  accessibility  and  produces  two  crops 
annually,  the  Rabi,  or  spring  harvest,  consist- 
ing of  wheat,  barley,  etc.,  and  the  Kharif,  or 
autumn  crop,  for  the  most  part,  of  bajra,  juar, 
maize,  and  other  smaller  grains. 

The  land  of  Braj,  from  time  immemorial, 
has  been  noted  for  its  cattle.  Many  of  its 
noted  names  are  in  some  way  connected  with 
kine.  Among  these  might  be  mentioned  the 
name  Braj  itself,  indicating  the  cowboy  char- 
acter of  the  people ;  Mathura,  the  capital,  "res- 
onant with  the  voice  of  the  sputtering  churn, 
and  flowing  with  buttermilk" ;  Gopal,  a  shep- 
herd name  of  its  tutelary  deity;  Gokul  and 
Gobardhan,  and  other  sacred  towns.  "At  sun- 
rise and  sunset,"  says  Mr.  Growse,  "the  thor- 
oughfares   are    all    but    impassable,    as    the 


i8  Braj 

struggling  herds  of  oxen  and  buffaloes  leave 
and  return  to  the  homestead;  from  five  hun- 
dred to  six  hundred  to  one  thousand  head  of 
cattle,  at  least  equaling,  often  outnumbering, 
the  human  population." 

Anywhere,  in  this  Vaishnava  Holy  Land, 
abound  three  sacred  animals — the  deer,  the  pea 
fowl,  and  the  monkey ;  the  latter  especially,  in 
keeping  with  his  gregarious  habits,  taking  up 
his  abode  with  man  in  the  larger  towns  and 
about  the  temples,  being  fed  by  the  people  and 
stealing  what  he  can.  Large  sacred  turtles 
and  alligators  are  found  in  the  Jamuna,  espe- 
cially at  Brindaban  and  Mathura,  while  va- 
rious species  of  serpents,  as  the  cobra  de 
capello  and  the  karait,  and  such  animals  as 
the  wolf,  the  fox,  and  the  jackal,  may  be  found 
in  field  and  jungle.  In  the  dry  season,  from 
January  to  June,  everything  looks  bare  and 
barren,  and  dust  covers  the  face  of  the  coun- 
try and  fills  the  air  so  that  a  dull  gray  aspect 
is  given  to  the  landscape.  The  sacred  river 
falls  away  to  a  mere  sluggish  rivulet  with 
wide  stretches  of  sand  on  either  side.  But 
when  the  rains  set  in,  in  June  or  July,  in  a 
marvelously  short  time  the  whole  face  of  na- 
ture is  changed.  The  Jamuna  flows  full  from 
bank  to  bank ;  the  plains  change  from  gray  to 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         19 

green;  new  life  revives  in  everything;  the 
shrines  are  crowded  with  pilgrims;  and  what 
before  was  tame  and  unimpressive  now  teems 
with  life  and  interest. 

5.  Its  People.  As  would  naturally  be  ex- 
pected, the  inhabitants  of  Braj  are  mostly 
Hindus.  Out  of  a  population  of  763,099,  not 
more  than  75,000  are  Mohammedans,  who  are 
known  as  Malakana,  or  descendants  of  those 
who  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  were  forced 
to  become  Mohammedans,  and  are  as  inferior 
socially  as  they  are  numerically.  There  are 
only  about  twelve  thousand  Mohammedans  in 
Mathura  city,  and  not  more  than  fourteen 
hundred  in  the  neighboring  town  of  Brinda- 
ban,  and  in  western  Braj  only  in  Shahpur  and 
Kosi  do  they  exist  in  any  considerable  num- 
bers. The  Hindu  character  of  the  population 
may  be  readily  seen  from  the  language,  which 
is  Hindi,  or,  rather,  a  local  form  of  it  known 
as  the  Braj  Bhasha,  or  dialect ;  also  from  the 
map,  which  shows  nearly  all  the  names  of 
towns  as  ending  with  the  Hindi  pur,  nagar, 
or  garh,  instead  of  the  Mohammedan  ending 
ahad. 

The  Hindus  of  Braj  may  be  classified  as 
Brahmans,  Thakurs,  Baniyas,  and  Jats.  The 
most  influential  are  the  Brahmans.     Of  these 


20  Braj 

there  are  several  distinct  classes,  as  the 
Sanadh,  who  are  most  numerous,  the  Chaubes, 
and  the  Ahivasis.  The  two  latter  classes  ap- 
pear to  be  peculiar  to  Mathura,  the  second  as 
carriers  and  dealers  in  salt,  and  the  first  as 
mendicants  and  local  guides.  There  are  be- 
tween six  and  seven  thousand  of  them  in  Ma- 
thura city.  These  Chaubes  are  great  wres- 
tlers and  have  their  gymnasia  in  different  parts 
of  the  city.  A  visit  to  the  bathing  ghats  and 
principal  temples,  and  to  the  railway  station, 
will  show  them  in  numbers  ready  to  fall  upon 
the  unsophisticated  pilgrims  from  distant  parts. 
They  are  praised  for  their  learning  and  sanc- 
tity, but  really  they  are  for  the  most  part 
ignorant  and  rapacious  deceivers  who  in  the 
mutiny  of  1857  were  not,  as  a  class,  loyal  to 
the  government.  They  are  clannish  and  are 
reluctant  to  marry  outside  of  their  community, 
and  marriages  are  sometimes  contracted  be- 
tween parties  yet  unborn,  or  between  an  old 
man  and  a  child. 

The  great  mass  of  the  Baniyas  in  Braj  are 
'Agarwalas,  and  from  this  class,  mainly,  are 
recruited  the  Sarangis,  or  worshipers  of  the 
naked  gods,  but  they  are  unpopular  in  Ma- 
thura, so  that  there  are  only  two  temples,  one 
near  the  center  of  the  city  and  another  in  the 


STATUE  OF  THE  JAINA  TIRTHAMKAR  PADMAPRABHANATHA 

(Dated   Samvat   1038,   or  A.   D.   981,  a  donative  gift   of  the 

Svetambara  community  of  Mathura,  excavated  from 

the   Kankali  Tila  in  January,    1889.) 


The  Land  and  the  Religion        21 

suburb  of  Kesopur,  belonging  to  this  sect. 
The  Jats  are  more  important.  They  are  very 
numerous.  As  to  their  origin  there  is  a  dif- 
ference of  opinion.  They  themselves  claim 
to  be  descendants  of  Jathara  by  union  with  the 
Brahmans;  others  indicate  Kandahar  as  their 
cradle;  while  still  others  identify  them  with 
the  Xanthii  of  Strabo,  the  Jatii  of  Pliny,  or 
the  more  recent  Jats,  or  Zaths,  found  by  the 
Mohammedan  conquerors  of  Sindh. 

Whatever  their  origin,  the  adjoining  feuda- 
tory state  of  Bharatpur  has  been  ruled  by  them 
for  centuries,  and  in  the  eighteenth  century 
their  influence  was  extended  over  Braj  with 
such  permanent  effect  that  still  in  the  Kosi, 
Chhata,  and  Mahaban  political  divisions  of 
the  district  nearly  half  the  villages  are  held 
by  the  Jats. 

In  the  centuries  gone  by  these  various  classes 
fought  out  their  differences  on  many  a  bloody 
field,  but  in  these  halcyon  days  they  dwell  side 
by  side  in  the  villages  and  towns  of  Braj,  till- 
ing the  soil,  herding  their  flocks,  and  living 
their  quiet,  uneventful  lives  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  paramount  power,  having  long  since 
forgotten  the  oppression  of  other  days. 

6.  Its  Religion.  The  religion  of  Braj  is  in- 
tensely Hindu.    Here  and  there  an  unadorned 


22  BrAJ 

mosque  lifts  its  minarets,  or  a  church  its  sa- 
cred spire,  in  protest  against  the  prevaiHng 
idolatry  and  in  testimony  to  the  unity  of  God, 
but  nine  tenths  of  the  residents,  and  all  the 
pilgrims,  are  Vaishnava  Hindus.  As  geology 
reveals  the  various  ages  of  the  world's  history 
by  the  rock  strata  which  have  been  uncovered, 
so  in  this  Holy  Land  there  are  evidences  of 
the  prevalence  at  different  times  of  different 
beliefs,  or  of  different  forms  of  the  same 
belief.  In  the  religious  history  of  India  three 
phases  of  the  Ar3^an  religion  are  noticeable: 
First,  the  physiolatry  of  the  Vedas;  second, 
the  philosophical  speculations  of  the  Shastras ; 
and,  third,  the  incarnations  of  the  Puranas. 
India  is  now  passing  through  this  latter  phase 
of  its  religious  history.  The  triad  Brahma, 
Vishnu,  and  Siva,  in  popular  estimation,  has 
its  main  force,  in  these  latter  days,  in  its  sec- 
ond member.  Vishnu  has  manifested  himself 
many  times,  and  in  the  tutelary  divinity  of 
Mathura  he  revealed  himself  in  a  seventh  in- 
carnation, or,  as  some  would  say,  manifested 
himself  fully.  At  the  same  time  Krishna  was 
the  most  human  of  all  the  gods.  This  fact 
has  had  its  influence  upon  the  Hinduism  of 
Braj  and  made  its  capital  the  most  popular 
shrine  of  India.    The  year  round  festival  sue- 


The  Land  and  the  Religion        23 

ceeds  festival,  and  on  his  birthday  festival, 
Janm  Ashtami,  and  at  the  time  of  the  satur- 
nalia known  as  the  Holi,  and  especially  during 
the  rainy  season,  from  July  to  October — when 
the  sacred  river  flows  full  and  strong,  and  the 
tanks  are  overflowing,  and  the  plains  are  cov- 
ered with  verdure — then  it  is  that  many  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  pilgrims,  of  all  ages  and 
classes,  flock  to  its  temples  and  ghats  and  sa- 
cred places  seeking  the  favor  of  the  tutelary 
divinitv. 


24  Braj 


II 

Its  Tutelary  Divinity 

I.  His  Popularity.  One  does  not  have  to  live 
long  at  Mathura,  or,  indeed,  anywhere  in  the 
land  of  Braj,  to  find  that  the  demigod  Krishna 
has  gained  a  mighty  hold  upon  the  popular 
affection.  Here  throng  multitudes  of  zealous 
pilgrims  from  all  parts  of  India,  and  espe- 
cially from  the  south.  One  great  event  fol- 
lows another  in  quick  succession.  A  stream 
of  strange-voiced  and  oddly  clad  men  and 
women  pour  along  the  sacred  way  of  eighty- 
four  kos  about  the  holy  city.  Gobardhan, 
Nandgawn,  Barsana,  Brindaban,  and  Mahaban 
are  sought  by  the  weary  multitudes,  coached 
and  bled  by  the  Chaiibes,  all  anxious  to  see 
the  sacred  places  and  do  honor  to  the  deified 
hero  of  Mathura.  Great  temples,  richly  en- 
dowed, occupy  the  sites  indicated  by  tradition 
and  legend  as  the  haunts  and  homes  of 
Krishna.  To  spend  some  time  along  the  Ja- 
muna  with  Krishna  is  the  highest  ambition  of 
the  devout  Hindu. 

The  enthusiastic  Vaishnava  confidently  be- 
lieves that  one  day  spent  at  Mathura  is  more 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         25 

meritorious  than  a  whole  Hfetime  spent  at 
Benares.  One  reason  for  this  is  that  a  longing 
humanity  finds  in  him  that  which  appeals  to 
universal  nature.  The  heroic  and  the  human 
can  be  understood  by  man.  And  in  the  in- 
spiring account  given  in  the  Mahabharata,  the 
story  of  "the  Great  War,"  and  in  the  Puranas, 
especially  in  the  Vishnu  Purana  and  in  the 
Bhagavat  Purana,  they  read  of  the  famous 
exploits  of  the  hero  of  Mathura  and  of  Kuruk- 
shetra,  and  of  the  amatory  swain  of  Brinda- 
ban,  and  feel  that  in  him  they  find  one  in  touch 
with  themselves. 

2.  Modern  Accretions.  The  people  of  India 
have  never  been  historians,  but  they  are 
imaginative,  and  the  uncritical  votaries  of 
Krishna  do  not  stop  to  consider  that  the  stories 
which  have  gathered  about  the  life  of  their 
hero  at  Mathura  are  after  accretions  very  much 
later  than  the  earlier  accounts.  It  may  be  cor- 
rect to  say  that  Krishna  worship  is  at  least 
twenty-four  hundred  years  old,  for  Megas- 
thenes  has  referred  to  Herakles  w^orshiped  in 
Methora  and  Klisobora,  or  Mathura  and  Krish- 
napur.  But  this  was  before  his  identification 
with  the  Supreme.  He  is  not  mentioned  in 
the  early  literature.  In  the  later  Vedic  litera- 
ture he  is  mentioned  as  a  man  and  in  the 


26  Braj 

Sutra  literature  as  a  hero,  or  a  demigod,  and 
not  as  supreme.  It  is  thought  that  the  Vaish- 
nava  cultus  did  not  develop  into  its  present 
form  earher  than  the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century  of  our  era,  when  the  Brindaban  Ben- 
gali Gosains,  or  the  Gokul  Vallabhacharis, 
wrote  the  Brahma  Vaivarta  Purana,  the  au- 
thorized Sanskrit  source  for  the  local  legends. 
There  may,  indeed,  have  been  an  historic 
Krishna  living  a  thousand  years  before  Christ 
who  saved  his  people  from  oppression  and  al- 
lied himself  with  the  Pandav  princes  in  their 
struggle  for  the  throne  of  Indraprastha,  near 
modern  Delhi.  But  he  is  very  different  from 
the  youthful  Krishna  who  stole  the  curds  at 
Gokula,  sported  with  the  milkmaids  at  Brin- 
daban, and  performed  grotesque  feats  in  the 
forests  of  Braj.  The  Mahabharata,  the  longest 
poem  in  the  world,  in  all  its  ninety-one  thou- 
sand couplets,  makes  no  mention  of  his  early 
life.  The  most  of  this  epic  may  have  been 
written  before  the  Christian  era.  The  Hari- 
vansa,  a  modern  sequel  to  the  Mahabharata, 
and  the  Vishnu  and  the  Bhagavat  Puranas, 
which  give  such  glowing  detailed  accounts  of 
the  deeds  of  the  youthful  Krishna,  were  writ- 
ten hundreds  of  years  after  the  epic,  the  latter 
perhaps  as  late  as  the  tenth  century  of  our  era. 


The  Land  and  the  Religion        27 

The  Prem  Sagar,  the  tenth  book  of  the  Bha- 
gavat,  and  which,  in  its  Hindi  version,  is  the 
authority  most  read  by  the  people  of  Braj,  is 
quite  a  modern  narrative.  And  now,  while 
Radha,  the  mistress  of  Krishna,  is  worshiped 
equally  with  him,  yet  she  is  not  even  men- 
tioned in  the  older  Puranas,  the  one  devoted  to 
her,  the  Brahma  Vaivarta  Purana,  being  the 
very  last  of  the  Puranas ;  and  the  Braj  Bilas, 
the  popular  Hindi  authority  for  Radha's  life, 
was  not  written  till  A.  D.  1743.  All  of  which 
goes  to  show  how  rapidly  a  story  like  the 
Krishna  legends  may  grow  among  an  imagina- 
tive people  like  the  Indians. 

3.  The  Krishna  Legends.  It  may  seem  su- 
perfluous to  give  much  space  to  the  Krishna 
stories,  but,  as  Growse  points  out,  "however 
puerile  and  comparatively  modern  many  of 
them  may  be,  they  have  materially  affected  the 
whole  course  of  local  history,  and  are  still 
household  words  to  which  allusion  is  con- 
stantly made  in  conversation  either  to  animate 
a  description  or  enforce  an  argument." 

As  gathered  from  the  Bhagavad  Gita  and 
the  Puranas  the  legends  run,  briefly,  as  fol- 
lows: 

Toward  the  close  of  the  Dvapara,  or  third 
age  of  the  world,  earth  became  greatly  afflicted 


28  Braj 

by  asuras,  or  demons,  and  especially  ty  the 
cruel  tyrant  Kansa,  who  was  in  reality  the  de- 
mon Kalanemi,  who  had  usurped  the  throne 
of  Ugrasen,  his  father,  the  rightful  rajah  of 
Mathura.  In  her  distress  she  went,  in  the  form 
of  a  cow,  to  Indra  at  Mount  Meru,  who,  listen- 
ing to  her  complaint,  went  with  her  to  Brahma, 
who,  in  turn,  took  her,  with  all  the  gods,  to 
Vishnu  at  the  milky  sea,  and,  praising  him,  at 
last  persuaded  him  to  become  incarnate,  to 
relieve  the  persecuted  earth  and  destroy  the 
tyrant  Kansa.  Vishnu  plucked  off  two  hairs, 
one  white  and  the  other  black,  and  said  to  the 
gods:  "These  my  two  hairs  shall  descend  to 
the  earth  and  relieve  her  of  her  burden 
and  distress."  The  white  hair  became  Bala- 
rama  and  the  black  one  Krishna,  who  was 
born  as  the  eighth  son  of  Basudeva  and 
Devaki  of  the  Lunar  race.  The  king  of  the 
Daityas,  Ahuka,  had  two  sons,  Devaka  and 
Ugrasena,  the  latter  the  father  of  Kansa,  and 
the  former  the  father  of  Devaki.  Basudeva, 
the  husband  of  Devaki,  was  the  son  of  Suru, 
a  descendant  of  Yadu  of  the  Aryan  race,  and 
had  another  wife,  Rohini.  Kansa  had  been 
informed  by  the  prophet  Narada  that  the 
eighth  son  of  his  cousin,  Devaki,  would  de- 
stroy him.    To  prevent  this  he  had  imprisoned 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         29 

her  and  destroyed  each  child  as  it  was  bom. 
But  the  seventh,  Balarama,  who  subsequently 
became  the  companion  of  Krishna,  was  saved 
by  being  transferred  to  the  womb  of  Rohini. 
When  the  eighth,  Krishna,  was  born  he  was 
carried  by  his  father  secretly  in  the  night  under 
the  protection  of  Yoganidra,  or  Maya,  the 
Sakti  of  Vishnu,  and  Sisha,  the  many-headed 
serpent,  across  the  river  Jamuna  to  the  town 
of  Gokula  and  to  the  house  of  a  nomad  herds- 
man named  Nanda,  whose  wife,  Yasoda,  had 
just  given  birth  to  a  daughter,  in  whose  place 
he  substituted  Krishna,  and,  bringing  the 
daughter  with  him  to  Mathura,  unknown  to 
anyone,  placed  her  in  the  arms  of  Devaki.  The 
guards  were  awakened  by  the  cry  of  a  newborn 
child,  Kansa  was  immediately  called,  and  he, 
seizing  the  child,  dashed  it  against  a  stone. 
But  it  arose  into  the  air  and,  expanding  into 
a  giant  figure,  cried  out,  "He  is  born  who  shall 
kill  thee,"  and  vanished.  Kansa,  finding  him- 
self thwarted,  liberated  Basudeva  and  Devaki, 
but,  summoning  the  principal  asuras,  told  them 
that  the  gods  were  plotting  against  his  life  and 
ordered  that  every  man  remarkable  for  his 
celebration  of  sacrifice,  and  every  boy  in  whom 
were  signs  of  unusual  vigor,  be  slain.  But 
Krishna  escaped.    His  foster  parents,  Nanda 


30  Braj 

and  Yasoda,  carefully  reared  him  and  his  elder 
brother,  Balarama,  who  joined  him,  as  their 
own.  At  Gokula  and  Brindaban  they  lived 
as  shepherd's  children ;  and  ever  evinced  their 
divine  character  by  many  strange  and  marvel- 
ous feats  of  strength.  Indeed,  from  his  in- 
fancy Krishna  displayed  his  superhuman  pow- 
ers. He  destroyed  the  female  Daitya,  Putana, 
sent  to  kill  him,  overturned  the  shepherd's 
cart,  and  uprooted  two  large  arjuna  trees,  and 
by  his  unruly  pranks  compelled  the  cowherds 
to  migrate  to  Brindaban.  There  the  two  boys 
roamed  about  in  the  forest  at  will,  even  joining 
in  sport  with  the  other  children,  or  performing 
wonderful  feats  of  strength.  Krishna  de- 
stroyed the  serpent  Kaliya  in  the  Jamuna 
River,  and  the  demons  Kesin,  Arishta,  and 
Kalanemi,  who  sought  to  take  his  life.  He, 
later,  persuaded  the  cowherds  to  abandon  the 
worship  of  Indra  and  to  worship  the  cows  that 
gave  them  milk  and  the  mountains  that  gave 
them  pasturage,  saying  that  "the  object  that 
is  cultivated  by  anyone  should  be  his  chief 
divinity."  To  protect  them  from  the  wrath 
of  Indra,  who  rained  down  upon  them  a 
mighty  torrent,  he  plucked  up  the  mountain 
of  Gobardhana  and  held  it  aloft  upon  one 
hand. 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         31 

But  Krishna  was  not  only  the  mighty  hero 
admired  for  his  superhuman  powers,  but  he 
was,  also,  the  jovial  companion,  the  amorous 
swain,  ever  playing  and  sporting,  and  dancing 
with  the  shepherd  women  and  maidens,  teach- 
ing them  the  Rasa  dance,  stealing  their  clothes 
at  Chir  Ghat,  and  amusing  himself  with  them 
at  his  will.  In  the  course  of  his  career  he  had 
more  than  sixteen  thousand  wives  and  one 
hundred  and  eighty  thousand  sons.  Radha,  the 
wife  of  Ayanaghosha,  was  his  chief  favorite, 
and  has  become  deified  with  him.  Kansa,  who 
had  not  forgotten  the  prediction  of  Narada, 
resolved  to  make  one  more  effort  to  rid  him- 
self of  his  mortal  foe.  He  invited  him  and 
Balarama  to  some  sports  at  Mathura,  in  the 
course  of  which  he  killed  the  tyrant  and  placed 
Ugrasena  upon  the  throne  of  his  fathers. 

He  repeatedly  defended  Mathura  against 
the  attacks  of  Kansa's  son-in-law,  Jarasandha, 
king  of  Magadha,  and  Kalayavana,  king  of 
the  Yavanas,  but,  to  save  his  people  from  fur- 
ther trouble,  deported  the  entire  city  in  a  mo- 
ment to  Dwaraka,  the  exact  counterpart  of 
Mathura,  which  he  had  prepared  in  the  midst 
of  the  distant  sea.  He  subsequently  destroyed 
Kalayavana,  carried  off  Rukmini,  daughter  of 
King  Bhishmaka,  killed  the  demon  Naraka, 


32  Braj 

and,  going  to  Swaraga,  Indra's  heaven,  at  the 
instigation  of  his  wife,  Satyabhama,  daughter 
of  Satyajit,  stole  the  famous  parijata  tree  and 
planted  it  in  her  garden  at  Dwaraka. 

He  fought  with  and  conquered  Siva,  de- 
stroyed Paundraka,  a  usurper,  and  burned 
Kasi  with  his  flaming  discus.  It  was  while 
reigning  at  Dwaraka  that  he  acted  as  the  chari- 
oteer of  his  cousin  Arjuna,  the  leader  of  the 
Pandavas  on  the  battlefield  of  Kurukshetra. 
In  the  narrative  of  this  event  may  be  found 
many  of  his  views  and  teachings  with  which  he 
endeavored  to  persuade  his  cousin  to  slay  his 
kindred. 

The  mission  of  Krishna  was  soon  ended. 
There  came  a  messenger  to  him  from  the  gods, 
saying,  "The  demons  have  been  slain,  and  the 
burden  of  the  earth  has  been  removed ;  now  let 
the  immortals  once  again  behold  their  monarch 
in  heaven." 

Dwaraka  was  restored  to  the  ocean,  the  Pa- 
davas  destroyed  at  Prabhasa,  Balarama  as- 
sumed the  form  of  Sesha,  and,  finally,  Krishna, 
in  fulfillment  of  a  prediction,  was  accidentally 
shot  by  the  hunter  Java,  and,  abandoning  his 
mortal  body,  and  the  condition  of  the  three- 
fold qualities,  became  again  nirguna. 

4.    Names    and    Appearance    of    Krishna. 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         ^^ 

Krishna  is  worshiped  under  different  forms, 
and  has  numerous  names  and  titles,  all  sig- 
nificant of  his  character.  The  most  popular 
among  his  names  are  Gopal,  "the  Cowherd," 
so  given  because  he  grew  up  among  the  shep- 
herds of  Gokula  and  Brindaban;  Gopinath, 
''the  Lord  of  the  milkmaids,"  referring  to  his 
amorous  relations  with  the  shepherdesses  of 
Braj ;  j\Iathura-nath,  "the  Lord  of  ^Mathura," 
where  he  was  born,  and  whose  deliverer  and 
defender  he  became.  But  he  is  usually  repre- 
sented in  two  forms,  namely,  either  in  the  form 
of  a  crawling  child  with  one  hand  extended 
full  of  butter,  or  curds,  which  he  has  stolen, 
and  popularly  known  as  the  Makhan  Chor,  or 
"Butter  Thief,"  in  memory  of  his  childish 
pranks  at  Gokula,  or  as  the  young  swain,  Kan- 
haya,  standing  in  careless  attitude  playing  the 
flute.  When  in  the  latter  form  Radha  is  usu- 
ally associated  with  him  in  worship.  His 
name,  Krishna,  signifies  "black,"  and  he  is  de- 
scribed in  the  Vishnu  Purana  as  "black  as  the 
dark  hues  of  the  lotus,"  and  elsewhere  as  hav- 
ing curly  hair,  with  a  curl  of  hair,  called  Siri 
vasta,  on  the  breast,  while  his  insignia  consists 
of  a  club,  a  mace,  a  sword,  a  flaming  discus 
(Chakra),  a  jewel,  a  conch,  and  a  garland. 
5.  Manner  of  Worship,    Krishna,  while  con- 


34  Braj 

sidered  to  be  Vishnu  himself,  is  yet  the  most 
human  of  all  the  gods,  entering  heartily  and 
fully  into  human  life,  and  in  every  way  was 
approachable.  He  represents  the  joyous  and 
cheerful  side  of  Hinduism,  and  his  worship  is 
characterized  by  a  lightness  and  freedom  not 
found  in  that  rendered  to  any  other  deity  in  the 
catalogue.  Music  and  especially  dancing  char- 
acterize the  ordinary  Krishna  worship.  The 
universal  and  innate  love  of  childhood  finds 
an  attraction  in  the  merry  child  Krishna,  and 
the  story  of  his  birth,  infancy,  and  youthful  life 
is  read  with  the  same  avidity  as  are  the  gospel 
accounts  of  the  nativity  and  infancy  of  our 
Lord  in  a  Christian  household  at  Christmas 
time.  There  are  many  festivals  and  joyous 
assemblies  held  during  the  year,  such  as 
Krishna's  birthday  (Janm  Ashtami),  the  Ras 
Lila,  and  the  Holi,  in  which  the  people  give 
themselves  up  to  the  most  boisterous  revelry 
in  commemoration  of  their  hero.  The  Krishna 
worship  conducted  at  the  temples  consists  of 
certain  ceremonies  performed  by  the  priests 
in  the  presence  of  the  people,  and  is  usually 
made  up  of  the  following  daily  routine :  First, 
early  in  the  morning,  the  god  is  bathed  and 
dressed;  then  lights  and  incense  are  brought 
before  him,  after  which  an  offering  of  food 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         35 

is  made  of  which  he  is  supposed  to  partake. 
This  food  usually  consists  of  cooked  and  un- 
cooked rice,  or  other  grains,  and  various  kinds 
of  fruits  and  sweetmeats.  After  the  god  has 
partaken  the  remains,  called  prasad,  are  eaten 
by  the  worshipers.  It  is  usual  to  find  the  god 
decorated  with  flowers  and  costly  ornaments. 
At  some  temples,  especially  at  the  Vallabha 
Swami  temples,  there  are  performed  the  fol- 
lowing eight  services:  I.  Mangala,  the  sunrise 
levee ;  2.  Shringara,  the  enthronement,  half  an 
hour  afterward ;  3.  Gzvala,  suppositional  cattle 
grazing  in  the  forest ;  4.  Raj  Bhog,  the  midday 
meal ;  5.  Uttapan,  the  awakening  from  siesta, 
about  3  p.  M. ;  6.  Bhog,  the  evening  meal ; 
7.  Sandhya,  disrobing  at  sunset ;  8.  Saya,  retir- 
ing for  the  night. 

Among  the  Vallabha  Charyas,  or  Gokulastha 
Gosains,  Krishna  is  worshiped  with  immoral 
rites,  and,  indeed,  the  priest  is  himself  looked 
upon  as  an  incarnation  of  Krishna  to  whom  the 
worshiper  is  bound  to  render  the  most  de- 
grading services.  The  founder  of  this  sect 
declared  that  the  dogma  of  Brahma-Sambandh, 
upon  which  his  system  was  based,  was  given 
to  him  word  for  word  by  the  Deity.  In  this 
it  is  declared  that  "every  sin,  whether  of  body 
or  soul,  is  put  away  by  union  with  the  Crea- 


36  Braj 

tor/'  which,  in  the  teachings  of  this  sect,  means 
complete  submission  to  the  selfish  desire  of  the 
priest. 

6.  Krishna  and  Christ.  In  these  days  when 
men  and  women  like  Viva  Kananda  and  Mrs. 
Besant  seek  to  fill  uncritical  minds  with  the 
vague  occult  and  mystical  teachings  of  Yo- 
gism  and  theosophy,  some  may  be  misled  by 
certain  statements  made  concerning  the 
Krishna  cultus  to  believe  that  there  is  but  lit- 
tle difference  between  the  lives  and  doctrines 
of  Krishna  and  Christ.  It  is  true  there  are 
some  apparent  similarities.  Among  these  may 
be  noticed  the  similarity  in  sound  of  the  names 
Krishna  and  Christ ;  the  flight  into  Egypt  from 
the  wrath  of  Herod  and  the  flight  to  Gokula 
from  the  wrath  of  Kansa ;  the  massacre  of  the 
innocents  by  both  Herod  and  Kansa ;  the 
miraculously  born  forerunners  John  and  Bala- 
rama;  the  songs  of  the  angelic  hosts  and  the 
worship  of  both  Christ  and  Krishna  by  the 
shepherds ;  the  prominence  given  to  the  child- 
hood of  Christ  and  Krishna  in  Saint  Mat- 
thew's gospel  and  in  the  Vishnu  Purana; 
the  kinship  of  Christ  and  Krishna  with  kings ; 
the  assumption  of  divinity  and  the  exhibition 
of  miraculous  powers  by  both  Christ  and 
Krishna.      Among    the    apparent    likenesses 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         -^y 

found  in  the  tenets  of  the  respective  cults 
may  be  named  the  primary  idea  underlying 
both  religions  as  that  of  a  benevolent  deity 
becoming  incarnate  in  order  to  save  the  world 
(Prithwi,  Kosmos)  from  oppression  and  to 
restore  the  practice  of  true  religion;  the  per- 
sonal assumption  and  equality  with  the  Su- 
preme ;  the  requirements  of  personal  devotion 
and  attachment  on  the  part  of  the  disciple; 
the  emphasis  placed  upon  the  doctrines  of  de- 
votion and  faith  (Bhakti  and  Pistis)  in  the 
Gita  and  in  the  gospels;  and  the  promise  of 
untold  blessings  to  the  faithful  in  both  cults. 
Savants  have  advanced  various  theories  to  ac- 
count for  these  similarities.  Some,  who  main- 
tain the  ante-Christian  authorships  of  the  Gita 
and  a  high  antiquity  for  Krishna,  have  sug- 
gested that  Christianity  may  have  borrowed 
something  from  Krishnaology ;  others,  with 
a  greater  show  of  success,  have  expressed  the 
opinion  that  the  Krishna  story  may  have  bor- 
rowed something  from  Christianity,  either 
from  the  apocryphal  writings  or  from  Saint 
Matthew's  gospel  brought  to  India  by  Saint 
Thomas,  or  through  Brahman  travelers  who 
in  the  early  Christian  centuries  visited  in 
western  lands.  But  the  argument  for  either 
view  is  not  conclusive.     It  is  more  probable 


38  Braj 

that  each  system  grew  up  without  having  any 
important  influence  on  the  other.  The  growth 
of  such  a  religion  as  Krishnaism  out  of  the  an- 
tecedent pantheistic  doctrines  of  the  Brahmans 
and  in  obedience  to  the  longing  of  the  human 
heart  for  a  greater  union  with  the  divine  is 
as  natural  as  the  evolution  of  Christianity  from 
the  more  primitive  religion  of  the  Hebrews. 

The  agreements  are,  after  all,  more  apparent 
than  real.  Similarity  of  terms  does  not  neces- 
sarily imply  identity  of  meaning,  and  the  sim- 
ilarity in  the  events  are  mere  coincidences.  The 
Bhakti  of  the  Vaishnava  is  not  the  same  as  the 
faith  of  the  Christian.  The  Gita  teaches  that 
to  slay  one's  kindred  is  right,  while  the  gospel 
urges  us  to  love  our  enemies.  Krishna  lived 
the  life  of  a  rake,  while  Christ  is  the  model 
of  holiness. 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         39 


III 

Its  Capital 

I.  Its  History,  (i)  Traditional.  If  tradi- 
tion and  mural  remains  and  anicent  ruins  are 
to  be  trusted  there  have  been  at  least  three 
Mathuras,  each  occupying  its  own  site.  As 
has  been  already  related,  the  earliest  known 
ruler  was  Madhu,  who  reigned  in  the  forest  of 
Madhuban.  This  forest  was  hewn  down,  and 
a  city  of  Mathura  was  built  by  Satrughna  at 
a  very  remote  period.  This  city  may  not  have 
been  on  the  river  Jamuna;  at  least  its  site  is 
now  four  or  five  miles  distant  from  the  river. 
The  present  village  of  Maholi  is  on  or  near 
the  location  of  this  ancient  Mathura,  and  it  has 
been  pointed  out  by  archaeologists  that  the  far- 
ther back  toward  Maholi  excavations  are  made 
the  more  ancient  the  antiquities  discovered. 
Indian  rivers  easily  change  their  beds,  and  in 
the  intervening  centuries  the  Jamuna  may 
have  gradually  shifted  away  from  the  ancient 
capital.  This  city  was  distinctly  a  Hindu  city. 
After  the  departure  of  Satrughna  the  city  was 
annexed  by  a  branch  of  the  great  Yadav  clan. 

(2)    Buddhist   Mathura.      Buddhism   arose 


40  Braj 

in  India  in  the  sixth  century  B.  C,  and  the  re- 
Hgion  must  at  a  very  early  period  have  become 
very  strong  in  Mathura,  for  tradition  affirms 
that  it  was  visited  by  the  great  founder  him- 
self. The  many  remains  exhumed  in  recent 
years  indicate  that  it  became  one  of  the  great 
Buddhist  centers.  This  second  city  of  Ma- 
thura occupied  the  site  of  the  present  Bhutes- 
var  and  Katra  and  "Kankali  tila,"  some  dis- 
tance back  from  the  river  toward  the  west. 
About  the  years  400  and  634  A.  D.  respectively 
two  Chinese  pilgrims,  Fa  Hian  and  Hwen 
Thsang  by  name,  visited  Mathura  and  found 
it  to  be  a  mighty  religious  stronghold.  The 
former  of  these  declared  that  all  the  people 
he  met  were  stanch  Buddhists  and  had  been  so 
for  a  very  long  time.  He  found  in  Mathura 
and  in  its  neighborhood  twenty  monasteries 
with  three  thousand  monks  and  six  stupas,  or 
relic  towers,  which  he  mentions  by  name. 
Hwen  Thsang  describes  the  Mathura  of  his 
time  to  be  four  miles  in  circumference,  and  as 
containing  twenty  monasteries  with  two  thou- 
sand monks  and  seven  stupas  containing  relics 
of  great  religious  teachers.  He  recorded  that 
about  a  mile  and  a  quarter  to  the  east  of  the 
town  a  great  monastery,  reputed  to  have  been 
built  by  the  venerable  Upagupta,  in  which  were 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         41 

preserved  his  nails  and  beard,  was  to  be  found. 
In  1853  General  Cunningham  discovered  some 
important  Buddhist  remains  at  Katra,  the  site 
of  the  famous  Hindu  temple  of  Kesava  Deva. 
Among  these  was  a  figure  of  Buddha  three 
and  a  half  feet  high.  In  i860  a  more  impor- 
tant discovery  was  made  when  a  number  of 
statues,  pillars,  and  bas-reliefs  were  uncovered, 
from  the  inscriptions  on  which  it  was  ascer- 
tained that  these  occupied  the  site  of  four 
Buddhist  monasteries.  But  the  most  impor- 
tant discoveries  of  all  have  been  made  at  ''Kan- 
kali  tila,"  a  mound  on  the  road  leading  to 
Katra.  Here  were  found  colossal  images  of 
Buddha  and  many  other  relics  which  convinced 
the  discoverers  that  here  was  the  site  of  a  great 
monastery,  perhaps  that  of  Upagupta,  men- 
tioned by  Hwen  Thsang.  A  large  pillar  w^as 
found  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Katra  hill  near  the 
town.  Katra  seems  to  mark  the  center  of 
Buddhist  Mathura.  Concerning  this  Growse 
says:  "Taking  the  Katra,  or  the  adjoining 
shrine  of  Bhutesvar,  as  the  omphalos  of  the 
ancient  city,  and  the  probable  site  of  the  stupa 
of  Sariputra,  a  short  distance  to  the  east  will 
bring  us  to  the  'Kankali  tila,'  that  is,  the  mon- 
astery of  Upagupta ;  while  the  Jalalpur  mound 
has  already  been  identified  with  the  monkey 


42  Braj 

stupa  and  the  mounds  on  the  Sonkh  road  with 
the  stupas  of  four  earlier  Buddhas  and  the 
other  great  teachers  of  the  law." 

(3)  Hindu  Mathura.  But  Buddhism  was  an 
episode.  It  was  destined  to  decay  and  die  out 
of  this  land.  Hinduism  again  gained  the  as- 
cendency, and  a  second  Hindu  Mathura  arose. 
It  would  appear  that  even  at  the  time  of  Hwen 
Thsang's  visit  in  the  middle  of  the  seventh 
century  Buddhism  was  on  the  decline,  and  in 
the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century  the  Mo- 
hammedan historians  describe  Mathura  as  an 
almost  exclusively  Brahmanical  city.  Mah- 
mud  of  Ghazni  sacked  the  city  in  1017,  when 
the  historian  records:  "The  town  was  con- 
structed of  hard  stone,  had  opening  on  the 
river  two  gates,  raised  on  high,  and  massive 
basements  to  protect  them  from  the  floods. 
On  the  two  sides  of  the  city  were  thousands 
of  houses  with  idol  temples  attached,  all  of 
masonry  and  strengthened  throughout  with 
bars  of  iron,  and  opposite  them  were  other 
buildings  supported  on  stout  wooden  pillars. 
In  the  middle  of  the  city  was  a  temple,  larger 
and  finer  than  the  rest,  to  which  neither  paint- 
ing nor  description  could  do  justice.  If  any- 
one wished  to  construct  a  building  equal  to  it 
he  would  not  be  able  to  do  so  without  expend- 


The  Land  and  the  Religion        43 

ing  a  hundred  million  dinars,  and  the  work 
would  occupy  two  hundred  years,  even  though 
the  most  able  and  experienced  workmen  were 
employed."  "On  the  decline  of  Buddhism," 
says  Growse,  "Mathura  acquired  that  charac- 
ter for  sanctity  which  it  still  retains  as  the 
reputed  birthplace  of  the  deified  Krishna.  Or, 
more  probably,  the  triumph  of  Buddhism  was 
a  mere  episode,  on  the  conclusion  of  which  the 
city  reacquired  a  character  which  it  had  before 
enjoyed  at  a  much  earlier  period ;  for  it  may  be 
inferred  from  the  language  of  the  Greek  geog- 
raphers that  Brahmanism  was  in  their  time 
the  religion  of  the  country,  and  Hindu  tradi- 
tion is  uniform  in  maintaining  its  claims  both 
to  holiness  and  antiquity." 

(4)  Mohammedan  Mathura.  For  more  than 
five  hundred  years  this  sacred  city  lay  under 
the  dark  cloud  of  Mohammedan  supremacy, 
during  which  time  Hinduism  exceedingly 
feared  and  trembled  and  made  no  record  of 
progress  or  even  of  existence.  It  is  only  when 
some  fearful  lightning  stroke,  more  terrible 
than  the  rest,  broke  through  the  cloud  that  we 
have  a  glimpse  of  its  condition.  In  1017  Mah- 
mud  of  Ghazni,  during  his  ninth  invasion  of 
India,  descended  upon  this  holy  city  and  gave 
it  up  to  plunder.    The  magnificent  and  richly 


44  Braj 

endowed  temples  were  thrown  to  the  ground, 
and  more  than  a  hundred  camel  loads  of  costly 
images,  including  five  large  idols  of  pure  gold, 
with  eyes  of  rubies  and  adornments  of  other 
precious  stones,  were  carried  away.  For  twenty 
days  this  ruthless  work  of  plunder  went  on, 
and  it  is  estimated  that  three  millions  of  rupees' 
worth  of  spoil,  and  more  than  five  thousand 
captives,  were  carried  ofif.  During  the  reign 
of  Sultan  Sikandar  Lodi  (1488-1516)  it  is 
said  that  "he  entirely  ruined  the  shrines  of 
Mathura  and  turned  their  principal  temples 
into  sarais  and  colleges.  Their  stone  images 
were  given  to  the  butchers  to  serve  them  as 
meat  weights,  and  the  Hindus  in  Mathura 
were  strictly  prohibited  from  shaving  their 
heads  and  beards  and  performing  their  ablu- 
tions. He  thus  put  an  end  to  all  the  idolatrous 
rites  of  the  infidels  there,  and  no  Hindu,  if  he 
wished  to  have  his  head  or  beard  shaved,  could 
get  a  barber  to  do  it."  When  one  considers 
how  the  high-caste  Hindus  abhor  meat,  and 
how  essential  ceremonial  bathing  and  shaving 
are  to  them,  one  can  realize  to  some  extent  the 
indignity  heaped  upon  them.  In  1636  the  em- 
peror Shahjehan  appointed  Murshid  Kuli 
Khan  governor  of  Mathura,  with  instructions, 
which  doubtless  were  zealously  carried  out,  to 


The  Land  and  the  Religion        45 

stamp  out  all  idolatry.  But  most  destructive 
and  ruthless  of  all  was  the  incursion  of  that 
iconoclast  of  the  East,  Aurangzeb,  his  son,  who 
died  a  prisoner  in  the  Gwalior  fort  in  1665. 
He  was  born  at  Mathura,  and  in  the  town 
now  called  Fathabad,  near  Agra,  he  seized  and 
had  carried  off  to  prison  his  elder  brother, 
Murad,  the  rightful  heir  to  the  throne  of  his 
father,  Shahjehan.  So  fierce  was  this  zealous 
Mohammedan  that  he  not  only  sought  to 
utterly  destroy  the  most  sacred  temples  and 
shrines  of  Mathura,  but  also  endeavored  to 
change  the  very  name  of  the  place  to  Islam- 
abad. Not  content  with  the  work  of  his  depu- 
ties, Aurangzeb,  in  1689,  descended  in  person 
upon  the  devoted  city.  He  marked  out  for  his 
special  vengeance  the  famous  temple  of  Ke- 
sava  Deva,  which  had  been  built  at  a  cost  of 
thirty  lakhs  of  rupees,  and  concerning  which 
Tavernier  wrote  in  1650:  ''It  is  one  of  the 
most  sumptuous  edifices  in  all  India,  and  the 
place  where  there  used  to  be  formerly  the 
greatest  concourse  of  pilgrims.  The  temple  is 
of  such  vast  size  that,  though  in  a  hollow,  one 
can  see  it  five  or  six  kos  off,  the  temple  being 
very  lofty  and  very  magnificent."  In  the  lan- 
guage of  a  writer  of  the  time:  "The  proud 
rajahs  felt  their  breath  burning  in  their  throats 


46  Braj 

and  became  as  dumb  as  a  picture  on  a  wall. 
The  idols,  large  and  small  alike,  all  adorned 
with  costly  jewels,  were  carried  away  from  the 
heathen  shrine  and  taken  to  Agra,  where  they 
were  buried  under  the  steps  of  Nawab  Kudsia 
Begam's  mosque,  so  that  people  might  trample 
upon  them  forever."  But  they  did  not  succeed 
in  securing  the  most  famous  idol,  for,  in  an- 
ticipation of  Aurangzeb's  raid,  it  had  been 
removed,  and  now  rests  in  the  temple  of  Nath 
Ji  in  the  town  of  Nathdwara,  twenty-two  miles 
from  Udaypur. 

(5)  Modern  Mathura.  So  complete  had 
been  the  destruction  of  the  city  by  the  fanat- 
ical Mohammedans  that  save  a  few  relics  noth- 
ing earlier  than  the  sixteenth  century  can  be 
found.  More  than  five  hundred  years  of  plun- 
der and  rapine  had  almost  completely  wiped 
out  all  traces  of  the  magnificent  old  Hindu 
city,  so  that  the  modern  city  does  not  even 
occupy  its  ancient  site.  In  1803,  upon  the  fall 
of  Aligarh,  then  held  by  the  French,  Mathura 
came  under  British  rule  and  was  made  a  mili- 
tary station  on  the  British  frontier,  whose 
western  boundary  was  the  Jamuna  River. 
From  this  time  onward,  interrupted  only  by  a 
number  of  famines  and  the  Sepoy  Rebellion  of 
1857,  the  city  continued  to  grow  in  prosperity. 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         47 

There  have  been  five  famines  since  1803 
worthy  of  note,  namely,  in  181 3- 14  many  died 
of  hunger,  and  men  sold  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren to  get  food;  in  1825-26  the  suffering  was 
great,  especially  in  the  Mahaban  and  Saadabad 
districts;  in  1837-38  Mr.  Hamilton,  the  com- 
missioner, reported  that  "all  the  Aring  and 
Gobardhan  Parganas  which  came  under  my 
observation  was  an  extensive  arid  waste,"  and 
"the  cattle  in  Aring  were  scarcely  able  to 
crawl";  in  1860-61  the  famine  was  terrible, 
and  many  people  died,  the  collector  reporting 
2,500  deaths  from  starvation  in  the  district 
during  1861  alone,  and  the  Delhi  road  was 
opened  as  a  relief  work,  8,000  men  being  em- 
ployed in  metaling  it  during  April  alone;  in 
1897-98  there  was  great  suffering,  and  it  was 
necessary  to  open  poorhouses  and  afford  relief. 
In  1832  Mathura  was  made  the  capital  of  a 
new  district.  On  the  memorable  fourteenth 
of  May,  1857,  the  mutiny  broke  out  at  Meerut. 
Mr.  Mark  Thornhill  was  magistrate  and  col- 
lector at  Mathura,  and  at  once  took  steps  to 
protect  the  city  and  guard  the  more  than  four 
and  a  half  lakhs  of  rupees  then  lying  in  the 
local  treasury.  He  applied  for  aid  from  the 
adjoining  native  state  of  Bharatpur,  and  a 
small  force  was  sent  under  the  political  agent, 


48  Braj 

Captain  Nixon,  to  Kosi,  on  the  northern  bor- 
der, to  intercept  any  rebels  who  might  be  ap- 
proaching from  Delhi,  which  had  already  mu- 
tinied. Mr.  Thornhill  himself  occupied  the  old 
fortlike  imperial  sarae  at  Chhata,  a  town  about 
eighteen  miles  from  Mathura,  on  the  Delhi 
road.  But  while  these  preparations  were  being 
made  the  native  troops  at  Mathura,  which  had 
been  selected  to  escort  the  treasure  to  Agra, 
mutinied,  shot  Lieutenant  Burton,  their  com- 
manding officer,  seized  the  treasure,  set  fire  to 
the  public  buildings,  threw  open  the  jail  and 
liberated  the  prisoners,  and  departed  to  join 
their  comrades  at  Delhi.  Mr.  Thornhill  then 
abandoned  Chhata  and  returned  to  Mathura, 
where  he  was  received  and  secluded  by  the 
millionaire,  the  late  Seth  Lakhmi  Chand,  who 
lived  in  the  heart  of  the  town.  He  remained 
there  some  time,  but  upon  hearing  that  the 
rebels  from  Morar  and  Nimach  were  approach- 
ing the  city  upon  their  retreat  from  Agra  Mr. 
Thornhill,  disguised  as  a  native  and  guided 
by  a  faithful  native  officer,  Jamadar  Dilawar 
Khan,  with  an  escort,  set  out  to  endeavor  to 
reach  Agra  Fort.  They  found  the  road 
swarming  with  rebels.  The  escort  fled.  But 
the  faithful  Dilawar  Khan,  by  his  adroit  move- 
ments and  clever  replies,  brought  Mr.  Thorn- 


The  Land  and  the  Religion        49 

hill  safely  to  Agra.  Twice  the  rebels  passed 
through  Mathura  during  the  mutiny.  The 
Nimach  rebels  remained  two  days  before  pass- 
ing on  to  Delhi,  and  the  city  was  only  saved 
from  plunder  by  Seth  Mangi  Lai,  who  sat- 
isfied their  greed  by  levying  a  contribution 
upon  the  principal  residents  of  the  town.  On 
the  twenty-sixth  of  September,  on  the  fall  of 
Delhi,  the  retreating  rebels  remained  a  week 
at  Mathura,  and  the  city  was  again  saved  from 
pillage  by  one  of  their  own  leaders,  Hira  Singh, 
who  persuaded  them  to  spare  the  holy  city. 

Still  they  practiced  great  oppression  upon 
the  people,  and  even  set  up  their  own  govern- 
ment, proclaiming  Maulvi  Karamat  Ali  in  the 
Jama  Mas j id  to  be  viceroy  of  the  emperor  of 
Delhi.  In  October  Mr.  Thornhill  returned 
with  troops,  and  gradually  order  was  restored, 
and  in  July,  1858,  the  treasury  was  again 
established  in  the  police  lines. 

During  Christmas  week,  1859,  the  viceroy 
held  a  Durbar  at  Mathura,  at  which  many  hon- 
ors were  conferred  upon  those  who  had  proved 
loyal  and  faithful  during  the  terrible  rebellion. 

2.  Its  Appearance  and  Population,  The  city 
of  Mathura  occupies  the  right  bank  of  the 
Jamuna  River,  about  thirty  miles  above  Agra, 
and,  being  for  the  most  part  built  on  a  hill 


50  Braj 

sloping  to  the  river,  it  has  from  the  opposite 
side  of  the  stream  a  picturesque  appearance, 
especially  from  the  middle  of  the  railway 
bridge  which  spans  the  river  at  the  lower  end 
of  the  town.  The  houses  are  built  of  stone 
from  the  Bharatpur  quarries,  but,  there  being 
no  very  tall  or  pointed  buildings,  the  roofs 
being  usually  terraced,  the  sloping  site  is  much 
to  the  advantage  of  the  city.  There  is  a  wide 
street  paved  with  stone  running  the  whole 
length  of  the  city  for  nearly  a  mile  and  a  half 
from  Bengali  Ghat  to  Brindaban  Gate,  con- 
forming for  the  most  part  to  the  course  of  the 
river.  On  this  main  street  are  to  be  found  the 
principal  temples,  shrines,  and  bathing  ghats. 

The  population  of  the  Mathura  municipality, 
according  to  the  census  of  1901,  is  50,566,  of 
whom  38,000  are  Hindus,  12,000  Mohamme- 
dans, and  about  500  Christians.  This  is,  of 
course,  the  resident  population  residing  within 
the  municipal  limits,  but  the  stream  of  pil- 
grims, especially  during  the  rainy  season  and 
upon  the  occasion  of  the  great  religious  festi- 
vals, swells  this  number  many  fold.  Mathura 
is  a  typical  Hindu  city ;  the  temples  and  bathing 
ghats  swarm  with  priests.  The  Chaube  Brah- 
man is  ever  on  the  alert  to  make  gain  out  of 
the  pilgrims.    Here  may  be  found  at  the  open 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         51 

shops  the  maker  and  seller  of  idols,  praying 
bags,  rosaries,  sacred  pigments,  and  other  ac- 
cessories used  by  the  votaries  of  the  paramount 
religion  in  their  worship. 

3.  Sacred  Places.  Like  Athens  of  old,  "the 
city  is  wholly  given  to  idolatry."  It  is  full 
of  temples  and  ghats  and  traditional  sites.  A 
walk  to  the  middle  of  the  railway  bridge  or  a 
climb  to  the  top  of  the  Flora  Hall  tower  will 
give  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  various  places 
of  interest.  The  best  way  to  see  these  places 
in  detail  is  to  go  to  the  site  of  the  old  fort 
called  Kans  ka  Quila,  the  Fort  of  Kansa,  on 
the  river  bank  toward  the  northern  end  of 
the  city.  It  was  restored  by  Rajah  Man  Sinh 
of  Jaipur,  and  was  the  occasional  residence  of 
the  famous  astronomer  Rajah  Sawai  Jai  Sinh, 
the  founder  of  Jaipur,  the  successor  of  the  old 
city  of  Amber.  Looking  down  the  river  from 
this  old  fort,  there  may  be  seen  along  the  river 
bank  a  succession  of  bathing  ghats,  extending 
as  far  down  as  a  walled  garden  known  as  the 
Jamuna  Bagh,  or  Seth's  Garden.  It  contains 
two  cenotaphs  in  memory  of  Seths  Mani  Ram 
and  Parikh  Ji,  the  predecessors  of  the  founder, 
the  late  rajah,  Lakhmi  Chand.  Near  the  mid- 
dle of  this  line  of  ghats  stands  the  most  sacred 
of  them  all,  by  name  Visrant  Ghat,  commem- 


52  Braj 

orating  the  resting  of  Krishna  after  slaying  the 
tyrant  Kansa.  It  is  distinguished  by  marble 
arches  erected  by  wealthy  devotees.  The  num- 
ber of  other  ghats  is  given  as  twent}'-four, 
twelve  above  and  twelve  below,  whose  names 
refer  to  well-known  legends,  as,  for  instance, 
Ghanta  Bharan  refers  to  the  bell  rung  to  arouse 
Vishnu  from  sleep;  Dharapatan  marks  the 
spot  where  a  woman  on  pilgrimage  fell  into 
the  sacred  river  and  was  at  once  born  again 
into  a  high  position ;  Sami  (Samhne),  so  called 
because  it  faces  the  main  street  of  the  city; 
Dhruva  commemorates  the  name  of  the  son  of 
Uttana-pada,  who,  through  seven  years'  pen- 
ance, was  translated  to  heaven.  On  the  river 
bank  just  below  Visrant  Ghat  stands  a  square 
red  sandstone  tower  called  the  Sati  Burj,  said 
to  have  been  built  by  Rajah  Bhagwan  Das  of 
Jaipur  in  A.  D.  1570  in  honor  of  his  mother, 
the  queen  of  Rajah  Bhar  Mai  of  Jaipur,  who 
immolated  herself.  On  rising  ground  in  the 
center  of  the  city  stands  the  Jama  Masjid,  a 
mosque  built  in  1661  by  Abdun  Nabi  Khan, 
the  local  governor,  on  the  site  of  a  temple. 
Among  the  most  noticeable  of  the  temples  is 
the  temple  of  Dwarkadhis,  in  Asikunda  Bazar, 
founded  by  the  Gwalior  treasurer,  Parikh  Ji, 
commenced  in  181 5.    It  was  visited  by  Bishop 


The  Land  and  the  Religion        53 

Heber  in  1825,  before  it  was  quite  completed. 
It  belongs  to  the  sect  of  the  Vallabha  Char}^as, 
or  Gokulastha  Gosains,  of  which  the  founder 
was  a  member.  The  temple  of  Bhairav  Nath, 
in  the  Lohar's  quarter,  is  remarkable  for  the 
fact  that  in  it  is  a  shrine  dedicated  to  a  Mo- 
hammedan saint.  It  is  equally  reverenced  by 
Hindus,  Sikhs,  and  Mohammedans,  who  flock 
to  it  in  great  numbers.  Noticeable  also  are 
the  temples  of  Radha  Kishn,  in  Chhata  Bazar, 
Bijay  Gobind,  in  Satghara  Ward,  Bala  Deva, 
in  Khans-Khar  Bazar.  On  the  opposite  side 
of  Asikunda  Bazar  from  the  Dwarkadhis  tem- 
ple stands  the  palace  of  the  Bharatpur  princes, 
with  a  fine  gateway,  and  just  opposite  the  tem- 
ple is  the  residence  of  the  late  Rajah  Lakhmi 
Chand.  On  the  same  side  of  the  street,  past 
the  palace  of  the  Bharatpur  princes,  standing 
a  little  back  from  the  street,  but  with  an  en- 
trance opening  to  it,  stands  Flora  Hall,  a 
church  and  schoolhouse  built  in  1893  in  com- 
memoration of  the  deceased  daughter  of  W. 
E.  Blackstone,  Esq.,  of  Oak  Park,  Chicago. 

Krishna's  birthplace  is  shown  at  the  back 
of  the  Katra,  near  the  site  of  the  temple  of 
Kesva  Deva,  now  occupied  by  the  mosque  of 
Aurangzeb,  built  in  1669.  It  is  on  the  margin 
of  a  large  quadrangular  tank  called  Potara 


54  Braj 

Kund,  where  it  is  said  Krishna's  "baby  linen" 
was  washed.  It  is  a  small  room  called  Janam 
Bhiimi,  "the  birthplace/'  or  Karagrah,  "the 
prison  house,"  where  the  parents  of  Krishna, 
Basudeva  and  Devaki,  were  imprisoned.  The 
Arina,  where  Krishna  killed  Kansa,  is  to  be 
found  outside  of  the  city  opposite  the  civil 
dispensary,  and  is  known  by  the  name  of  Kans 
ka  Tila,  or  Rang  Bhumi.  The  four  principal 
entrances  to  the  city  are  called  the  Brindaban, 
Dig,  Bharatpur,  and  Holi  Gates.  The  latter 
is  also  called  the  Hardinge  Gate,  in  honor  of 
the  late  Mr.  Bradford  Hardinge,  who  was 
magistrate  and  collector  at  the  time  the  beau- 
tiful and  elaborately  carved  stone  arch  was 
erected  over  the  main  street  leading  from  the 
civil  station  into  the  city.  The  center  of  the 
portal  is  surmounted  with  a  clock.  About  the 
only  indigenous  art  found  in  Mathura  is  that  of 
stone  carving,  which  is  indeed  very  fine,  and 
the  fronts  of  many  of  the  temples  and  private 
dwellings  may  be  found  covered  with  exquisite 
specimens  of  reticulated  tracery  in  red  sand- 
stone. Paper  and  rope  are  also  made,  and  little 
brass  images,  especially  a  curious  little  cup, 
known  as  Vasndeva  ka  Katora,  representing 
the  infant  Krishna  being  carried  across  the 
Jamuna  by  his  father. 


The  Land  and  the  Religion        55 


IV 

The  Haunts  and  Homes  of  Krishna 

I.  The  Ban  Jathra.  The  land  of  Braj  is 
full  of  sacred  places,  revered  on  account  of 
their  being  the  reputed  haunts  and  homes  of 
Krishna.  The  pilgrims  can  never  rest  until 
they  have  made  the  round  of  these  holy  shrines, 
and  hence,  especially  upon  the  occasion  of 
Krishna's  birthday,  called  Janm  Ashtami,  fall- 
ing in  the  month  Bhadon,  corresponding  with 
our  August-September,  in  the  midst  of  the 
rainy  season,  they  may  be  found  by  the  thou- 
sands making  the  Ban  Jathra,  or  perambula- 
tion of  Braj.  The  distance  traveled  is  popu- 
larly said  to  be  eighty-four  kos,  or  one  hundred 
and  sixty-eight  miles,  with  Mathura  as  the  cen- 
tral point  in  the  circle.  But  at  the  present  day 
Mathura  is  at  the  western  side  of  the  course 
marked  out,  and  it  is  therefore  thought  that 
originally  the  circle  must  have  been  much  more 
extensive.  But  in  any  case  the  circle  is  not  in- 
tended to  be  exact,  but  rather  ideal,  and  so 
any  place  within  may  be  considered  the  center. 
The  sacred  places  to  be  visited  are  enumerated, 
in  a  local  manual  published  for  the  guidance 


56  Braj 

of  the  pilgrims,  as  four  hills,  eleven  rocks, 
four  lakes,  eighty-two  ponds,  and  twelve  wells, 
but  the  main  features  of  the  pilgrimage  are 
twelve  woods  and  twenty-four  groves,  which 
are  taken  in  order.  During  the  month  of  pil- 
grimage a  series  of  festivals  called  the  Ras 
Lila,  commemorating  Krishna's  amours  with 
the  shepherdesses  of  Braj,  is  arranged  for  by 
a  class  of  Brahmans  called  Rasdharis,  whose 
special  work  it  is,  and  who  make  their  living 
thereby.  There  is  no  better  way,  the  writer 
has  found  by  personal  experience,  of  becoming 
well  acquainted  with  the  haunts  and  homes  of 
Krishna  than  falling  in  with  a  company  of 
pilgrims  and  making  with  them  the  perambula- 
tion of  Braj. 

2.  Maholi.  The  pilgrims  naturally  start 
from  the  holiest  place  in  the  holy  city  of 
Mathura,  namely,  Visrant  Ghat.  The  first 
halting  place  is  Mahaban,  some  four  or  five 
miles  southwest  of  Mathura,  in  the  present 
village  of  Maholi,  lying  back  from  the  river 
about  the  same  distance.  This  is  the  reputed 
place,  as  has  been  before  related,  where 
Rama's  brother,  Satrughna,  founded  the  city 
of  Madhupura,  which  Hindu  classic  litera- 
ture from  the  earliest  period  identifies  with 
Mathura,  although,  to  meet  all  the  require- 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         57 

ments  of  the  case,  the  city  and  the  river  must 
be  united. 

3.  Gobardhana.  After  visiting  Tal-ban, 
Kumudban,  and  Radha-kund,  on  the  way,  the 
pilgrims  come  to  Gobardhana,  ''the  nurse  of 
cattle."  This  famous  place  of  pilgrimage  is 
about  thirteen  miles  from  Mathura  by  the 
metaled  road  leading  to  Dig.  It  is  especially 
noted  as  the  place  where  Krishna  held  up  the 
mountain  Giri-raj  on  the  tip  of  his  finger  for 
seven  days  and  seven  nights  to  protect  the 
people  from  the  wrath  of  Indra,  who  had, 
through  the  teachings  of  Krishna,  been  de- 
prived of  his  usual  sacrifices.  This  limestone 
range  of  hills  is  four  or  five  miles  long  and 
about  one  hundred  feet  high,  and  rises  a  hun- 
dred feet  from  the  level  plain.  It  is  considered 
so  holy  by  the  devotees  of  Krishna  that  out 
of  respect  for  their  feelings  the  modern  gov- 
ernment high  road  had  to  be  carried  over  it 
on  a  paved  causeway.  The  town  of  6,738  souls 
is  built  in  a  break  in  this  range  of  hills  and 
on  the  margin  of  a  large  tank  called  the  Ma- 
nasi  Ganga,  which  is  illuminated  once  a  year, 
during  the  festival  of  the  Dewali.  Near  this 
tank  stands  the  renowned  temple  of  Harideva, 
built  during  Akbar's  time  by  Rajah  Bhagwan 
Das  of  Amber,  the  old  city  of  Jaipur.    On  the 


58  Braj 

opposite  side  of  the  Manasi  Ganga  are  two 
cenotaphs  built  in  memory  of  two  rajahs  of 
Bharatpur,  Randhir  Sinh  and  Baldewa  Sinh. 
These  stately  cenotaphs  have  in  them  some  fine 
specimens  of  reticulated  tracery  in  stone,  some 
frescoed  panels  exhibiting  scenes  in  the  life 
of  Krishna,  and  on  the  ceilings  of  the  pavilions 
are  painted  some  grotesque  historical  pictures 
of  the  siege  of  Bharatpur  in  which  the  British 
army  is  conspicuous.  The  cenotaph  erected  to 
the  memory  of  the  famous  Suraj  Mai  by  his 
son,  Jawahir  Sinh,  may  be  found  a  mile  or  so 
from  the  town.  Gobardhana  is  surrounded 
with  places  full  of  interest  to  the  pilgrims,  such 
as  Basai,  where  Krishna  and  Balarama  lived 
for  a  time  with  their  foster  parents;  Paitha, 
where  the  affrighted  people  gathered  under  the 
sheltering  mountains;  Morban,  the  haunt  of 
peacocks,  and  Chandra-Sarwar,  "the  Moon- 
lake,"  where  Brahma  joined  with  the  Gopis 
in  the  mystic  dance ;  and  Ganthauli,  where  was 
tied  the  marriage  "knot"  which  united  Radha 
and  Krishna  in  marriage.  Some  strange  sights, 
showing  the  devotion  of  the  pilgrims,  may 
be  witnessed  at  Gobardhana ;  men  and  women, 
under  a  vow,  making  the  pilgrimage  by  meas- 
uring their  length  on  the  ground,  and  men 
with  arms  extended  rigidly  above  their  heads. 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         59 

Mr.  Growse  tells  of  a  fakir  and  devotee  as 
follows:  "For  many  years  past  one  of  the  most 
striking  sights  of  Gobardhana  has  been  an 
aged  Hindu  ascetic,  who  had  bound  himself  by 
a  vow  to  absolute  silence;  whatever  the  hour  of 
day,  or  time  of  the  year,  or  however  long  the 
interval  that  might  have  elapsed  since  a  previ- 
ous visit,  a  stranger  was  sure  to  find  him 
sitting  exactly  on  the  same  spot  and  in  the 
same  position,  as  if  he  had  never  once  stirred, 
a  slight  awning  suspended  over  his  head,  and 
immediately  in  front  of  him  a  miniature  shrine 
containing  an  emblem  of  the  gods.  The  half 
century  which  was  the  limit  of  his  vow  has  at 
length  expired;  but  his  tongue,  bound  for  so 
many  years,  has  now  lost  the  power  of  uttering 
any  articulate  sound.  In  a  little  dog  kennel 
at  the  side  sits  another  devotee,  with  his  legs 
crossed  under  him,  ready  to  enter  into  conver- 
sation with  all  comers  and  looking  one  of  the 
happiest  and  most  contented  of  mortals,  though 
the  cell  in  which  he  has  immured  himself  is  so 
confined  that  he  can  neither  stand  up  nor  lie 
down."  What  a  strange,  inconsistent,  and 
contradictory  thing  is  Hinduism ! 

4.  Barsana.  The  next  important  halting 
place  after  Gobardhana  Is  Barsana,  where 
Radha,  Krishna's  mistress,  was  born.    It  stands 


6o  Braj 

on  and  at  the  foot  of  a  ridge  on  the  summit 
of  which  are  several  temples  dedicated  to  Larli 
Ji,  ''the  beloved,"  a  local  title  of  Radha.  She 
was  brought  up  here  by  her  parents,  Brikh- 
bhan  and  Kirat.  Near  by  are  Dhani  Kund, 
where  Jasoda,  the  foster  mother  of  Krishna, 
when  washing  her  milk  pail,  first  saw  the 
youthful  pair  together;  and  Prem-Sarovar, 
"love-lake,"  where  Krishna  first  made  love  to 
Radha ;  and  Sanket,  their  place  of  illicit  meet- 
ing. The  town  of  Barsana,  now  in  ruins,  was 
built  on  a  magnificent  scale  by  a  famous  pun- 
dit, Rup  Ram,  early  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
and  was  enriched  by  the  rajahs  of  Bharatpur 
and  Indore  and  further  helped  by  Mohan  Ram, 
a  Brahman,  and  by  Lai  Ji,  a  Tantia  Thakur, 
but  had  scarcely  been  completed  before  it  was 
destroyed  by  Nazir  Najaf  Khan,  after  a  severe 
battle  with  the  Jats,  in  1775,  when  the  town 
was  given  over  to  plunder. 

5.  Nandgawn.  About  five  miles  from  Bar- 
sana is  Nandgawn,  which,  like  the  former,  is 
in  a  ruinous  state.  The  village  occupies  the 
slope  of  a  hill  on  the  top  of  which  stands  a 
large  temple  dedicated  to  Nand  Rai  Ji,  the 
foster  father  of  Krishna.  Nandgawn  is  the 
reputed  home  of  Nanda.  In  the  town  may  be 
found  some  handsome  houses  built  by  the  fa- 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         6i 

mous  Rup  Ram  of  Barsana,  and  seven  or 
eight  temples,  of  which  Jasoda-Nandan  is  the 
largest,  but  none  of  them  are  more  than  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  old.  Near  by  is  one  of 
the  four  sacred  lakes  of  Braj,  Pan-Sarovar, 
covering  about  six  acres  with  steps  leading 
down  to  the  water  on  all  sides.  After  leav- 
ing Nandgawn  the  pilgrims  visit  Karohla, 
Kamsi,  Ajnokh,  where  Krishna  penciled 
Radha's  eyes  with  Anjan,  and  Pisayo,  where 
she  gave  her  thirsty  lord  a  draft  of  water, 
and  still  journeying  north  come  to  Charan 
Pahar,  where  he  delighted  to  stop  and  play 
the  flute  and  where  he  was  visited  and  wor- 
shiped by  Indra.  Thence  they  reach  Dadhi- 
ganw,  where  Krishna  sported  with  the  milk- 
maids, and  Kot-ban,  the  extreme  limit  of  the 
perambulation.  They  then  turn  south  to 
Sessai,  where  Krishna  reclined  under  the  can- 
opying heads  of  the  divine  serpent  Sesha,  and 
so  reach  the  Jamuna  at  Khel-ban,  where  his 
temples  were  crowned  with  the  marriage 
wreaths,  after  which  they  follow  the  course 
of  the  river,  coming  first  to  Bihar-ban,  and  to 
Chir  Ghat,  where  Krishna  stole  the  milkmaids' 
clothes,  and  to  Nand  Ghat,  where  Nanda 
w^as  carried  up  at  the  bidding  of  the  sea  god, 
Varuna,  and  to  Bachh-ban,  where  the  demon 


62  Braj 

Buchhasur  was  slain,  and  to  Akrur,  where 
Krishna  received  Kansa's  invitation  to  the 
Mathura  contest,  and  then,  finally,  to  the  ever- 
famous  Brindaban,  "the  Tulsi  Grove." 

6.  Brindaban.  (i)  Description.  Brindaban 
occupies  a  bend  in  the  river  Jamuna  about  six 
miles  north  of  Mathura.  A  little  higher  up  the 
river  there  is  a  similar  curve.  Concerning  these 
the  traditional  explanation  varies,  some  hold- 
ing that  the  bend  in  the  river  is  due  to  the 
anger  of  Balarama  at  Jamuna  for  deriding 
him  over  his  clumsy  dancing,  leading  him  to 
draw  his  heavy  plow  through  the  soil,  drawing 
the  helpless  river  from  its  accustomed  channel. 
Others,  following  the  Puranic  accounts  and 
other  Sanskrit  authorities,  relate  that  the  hero, 
becoming  intoxicated,  longed,  in  his  thirst, 
for  a  bath  in  the  sacred  stream  and  called 
to  her  to  approach,  which,  refusing  to  do,  he 
took  up  his  plow  and  made  a  new  channel, 
forcing  the  water  to  follow  his  bidding.  The 
more  natural  explanation  would  appear  to  be 
that  the  river,  coursing  its  way  through  the 
sandy  soil,  took  the  natural  turn  it  has  as- 
sumed, the  traditions  having  been  invented  to 
explain  the  phenomenon.  Brindaban  has  a 
population  of  22,717,  1,459  of  whom  are  Mo- 
hammedans and  about  200  Christians.     The 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         6^ 

Hindus  are  mostly  Brahmans,  Banyas,  and 
Vaishnavas ;  half  the  people  are  professed  celi- 
bates, a  large  number  of  devotees  have  come  to 
the  holy  shrine  to  die,  and  it  is  said  that  some 
eight  thousand  widows  devoted  to  Krishna 
reside  in  the  place,  so  that  it  is  not  surprising 
that  the  deaths  should  exceed  the  births. 

The  word  Brindaban,  as  has  been  already 
stated,  means  a  Tulsi  grove,  the  word  Brinda 
and  Tulsi  being  synonymous.  The  Tulsi  plant 
is  the  sacred  shrub  Ocymum  Sanctum,  found 
at  many  of  the  temples,  and  which  at  one  time 
grew  there  in  greater  profusion.  Others,  with 
more  romantic  ideas,  would  make  the  term 
Brinda  a  name  of  the  deified  Radha,  who  was 
sentenced  by  the  demon  Sankhachura  to  be- 
come a  nymph  of  Brindaban.  From  time  im- 
memorial this  town  has  enjoyed  the  distinction 
of  being  one  of  the  holiest  shrines  in  India, 
but  for  many  centuries  it  remained  little  else 
than  a  wild,  uninhabited  jungle.  There  are 
no  very  ancient  temples  in  the  place,  the  oldest 
not  earlier  than  the  seventeenth  century,  while 
none  of  the  modern  ones  are  more  than  a 
hundred  years  old. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  the  popularity  of 
the  place  as  a  pilgrim's  resort  seemed  to  spring 
into  new  life,  and  during  the  past  century,  since 


64  Braj 

it  came  under  British  rule,  its  popularity, 
largely  due  to  facilities  for  travel  and  good 
roads,  has  increased.  It  is  now  connected 
with  Mathura  by  a  good  metaled  road  and  by 
a  branch  meter-gauge  railway.  The  old  road 
ran  along  the  river  bank  and  is  now  almost 
entirely  abandoned. 

While  there  are  now  a  thousand  temples 
and  shrines,  large  and  small,  within  the  munic- 
ipal limits  of  Brindaban,  as  well  as  many  other 
sacred  places,  there  are  not  many  of  peculiar 
interest,  and  yet  there  are  some  worthy  of 
special  mention.  Taking  these  in  order,  first 
should  be  mentioned 

(2)  The  Older  Temples.  These  are  four 
in  number.  They  were  all  built  by  the  Go- 
sains  under  the  patronage  of  that  liberal  Mo- 
hammedan emperor,  Akbar,  who  visited  the 
place  in  1570.  The  four  temples,  now  in  a 
ruinous  condition,  although  partly  restored  by 
F.  S.  Growse,  Esq.,  magistrate  and  collector 
of  Mathura,  about  thirty  years  ago,  are  Gopi 
Nath,  Jugal  Kishore,  Madan  Mohan,  and  Go- 
bind  Deva.  The  first  three  can  be  described 
in  few  words.  The  temple  of  Gopi  Nath  is, 
perhaps,  the  oldest,  and  is  only  partly  standing, 
the  nave  having  entirely  disappeared  and  the 
three  towers  fallen  down.     It  is  reputed  to 


The  Land  and  the  Religion        65 

have  been  built  by  Thakur  Raesil  Ji,  descended 
from  the  third  son  of  Rajah  Uday  Karan,  who 
ascended  the  throne  of  Amber  in  1389.  The 
style  of  the  temple  is  very  similar  to  that  of 
Madan  Mohan.  It  has  an  arcade  of  three 
bracket  arches  and  a  choir  arch  of  elaborate 
design.  ]\Iadan  Mohan  stands  at  the  upper 
end  of  the  town  on  the  banks  of  the  river, 
near  Kali  Mardan  Ghat,  where  Krishna  de- 
stroyed the  serpent  Kali.  It  has  a  nave  fifty- 
seven  feet  long,  a  choir  twenty  feet  square,  on 
the  west,  and  beyond  it  a  sanctuary  of  the 
same  size.  The  tower  over  the  sacrarium  is 
a  lofty  octagon  tapering  to  the  top.  The  build- 
ing is  in  a  ruinous  condition  and  is  not  used. 
The  temple  of  Jugal  Kishore  stands  near  Kesi 
Ghat,  at  the  lower  end  of  the  town.  It  was 
built  by  Non  Karan,  who  may  have  been  the 
elder  brother  of  the  founder  of  the  temple 
of  Gopi  Nath,  in  the  year  A.  D.  1627,  while  the 
emperor  Jahangir  was  on  the  throne  of  Delhi. 
The  temple  of  Gobind  Deva,  the  largest  and 
finest  of  the  four,  deserves  special  mention. 
It  stands  on  an  elevation  on  the  western  side 
of  the  town.  An  inscription  within  states  that 
it  was  built  in  Sambat  in  1647,  corresponding 
to  A.  D.  1590,  by  Rajah  Man  Sinh,  son  of 
Rajah  Bhagwan  Das  of  Amber,  under  the  di- 


66  Braj 

rectlon  of  two  gurus,  Rupa  and  Sanatana.  Mr. 
Growse,  who  partly  restored  the  building, 
thus  describes  it:  '^Gobind  Deva  is  not  only 
the  finest  of  this  particular  series,  but  is  the 
most  impressive  religious  edifice  that  Hindu 
art  has  produced,  at  least  in  upper  India.  The 
body  of  the  building  is  in  the  form  of  a  Greek 
cross,  the  nave  being  a  hundred  feet  in  length 
and  the  breadth  across  the  transepts  the  same. 
The  central  compartment  is  surmounted  by  a 
dome  of  singularly  graceful  proportions;  and 
the  four  arms  of  the  cross  are  roofed  by  a 
wagon  vault  of  pointed  form,  not,  as  is  usual 
in  Hindu  architecture,  composed  of  overlap- 
ping brackets,  but  constructed  of  true  radiating 
arches  as  in  our  Gothic  cathedrals.  The  walls 
have  an  average  thickness  of  ten  feet,  and  are 
pierced  in  two  stages,  the  upper  stage  being  a 
regular  triforium,  to  which  access  is  obtained 
by  an  internal  staircase.  At  the  east  entrance 
of  the  nave  a  small  narthex  projects  fifteen 
feet ;  and  at  the  west  end,  between  two  niches, 
and  incased  in  a  rich  canopy  of  sculpture,  a 
square-headed  doorway  leads  into  the  choir, 
a  chamber  some  twenty  feet  deep.  Beyond  this 
was  the  sacrarium,  flanked  on  either  side  by  a 
lateral  chapel;  each  of  these  three  cells  being 
of  the  same  dimensions  as  the  choir,  and,  like 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         6j 

it,  vaulted  by  a  lofty  dome.  The  general  effect 
of  the  interior  is  not  unlike  that  produced  by 
Saint  Paul's  Cathedral  in  London.  The  latter 
building  has  greatly  the  advantage  in  size,  but 
in  the  other  the  central  dome  is  more  elegant, 
while  the  richer  decoration  of  the  wall  surface 
and  the  natural  glow  of  the  red  sandstone  sup- 
ply that  relief  and  warmth  of  coloring  which 
are  so  lamentably  deficient  in  its  Western 
rival."  It  is  thought  that  the  temple  was  orig- 
inally surmounted  with  seven  towers,  over  the 
central  dome,  sacrarium,  chapels,  and  at  the 
ends  of  the  transepts,  respectively.  These 
have  all  been  ruthlessly  thrown  down,  remov- 
ing the  noble  effect  they  must  have  given  to 
the  exterior.  The  building  having  a  cruciform 
ground  plan,  and  being  singularly  free  from 
the  usual  grotesque  figures  which  ruin  so 
many  other  temples,  it  would  not  require  much 
alteration  to  change  it  into  a  Christian  church, 
and  this  appearance  has  suggested  that  the 
architect  may  have  been  assisted  by  the  Jesuit 
missionaries,  who  had  considerable  influence 
at  Akbar's  court.  The  image  of  the  god  to 
whom  the  temple  was  originally  dedicated  was 
carried  to  Jaipur,  anticipating  the  visit  of  the 
destructive  Aurangzeb,  where  it  still  is  said  to 
be.     It  is  also  said  that  the  original  plan  of 


68  Braj 

the  temple  showing  the  seven  towers  is  to  be 
found  in  Jaipur,  and  the  Gosain  in  the  temple 
there  is  regarded  as  the  head  of  the  endow- 
ment. 

(3)  Modern  Temples.  There  are  six  tem- 
ples of  more  modern  construction  worthy  of 
notice.  One  of  these,  indeed,  the  Madho  Bilas 
temple,  on  the  Mathura  highway  west  of  the 
town,  is  not  yet  completed.  Taking  these  tem- 
ples in  chronological  order,  the  Krishna  Chan- 
drama  temple  was  built  in  1810  by  Krishan 
Chandra  Sinh,  a  Bengali  Kayath,  better  known 
as  Lala  Baba.  It  is  a  large  quadrangular  build- 
ing standing  in  a  garden,  inclosed  by  a  high 
wall  with  an  arched  gateway  at  either  end. 
The  temple  cost  twenty-five  lakhs  of  rupees. 
The  founder  had  an  interesting  history.  He 
was  the  fifth  in  descent  from  Baba  Murli  Mo- 
han Sinh,  a  wealthy  merchant  and  landlord 
at  Kandi,  in  Murshidabad.  When  thirty  years 
of  age  he  came  to  live  in  the  Holy  Land  of 
Braj.  At  forty  he  renounced  the  world,  as- 
sumed the  yellow  robes  of  a  Bairagi  fakir,  and 
begged  his  bread  from  door  to  door.  But  a 
chance  to  increase  his  worldly  gains  was  too 
great  a  temptation  to  the  man  of  business  to  be 
resisted.  As  he  saw  the  sacred  places  in  Braj 
fallen  into  ruins  by  neglect,  and  the  multitudes 


The  Land  and  the  Religion        69 

visiting  them  every  year,  he  bought  up  at  a 
price  far  below  their  value  all  the  villages  most 
noted  as  places  of  pilgrimage,  and,  there  being 
no  written  contract,  the  property  has  passed  to 
his  family.  He  thus  purchased  in  the  Holy 
Land  fifteen  villages,  paying  for  them  in  de- 
preciated rupees.  The  temple  known  as  the 
Seth's  temple  was  commenced  in  1845  ^^^ 
completed  in  1851,  the  founders  being  Seths 
Gobind  Ram  and  Radha  Krishn,  brothers  of 
the  Mathura  millionaire,  the  late  Rajah 
Lakhmi  Chand,  whose  father,  Seth  Muni  Ram, 
used  to  accompany  the  Lala  Baba  in  his  wan- 
derings as  a  fakir.  The  temple  cost  forty-five 
lakhs  of  rupees,  and  is  endowed  with  the  in- 
come of  thirty-three  villages,  seven  of  which, 
including  one  fourth  of  Brindaban,  are  in  the 
land  of  Braj.  It  is  dedicated  to  Rang  Ji,  a  title 
of  Vishnu.  The  plans  were  furnished  by  the 
family  guru,  or  religious  teacher,  Swami  Ranga 
Charya,  a  native  of  South  India,  which  ac- 
counts for  the  temple  being  built  in  the  homely 
Madras  style.  It  has  an  outer  court  seven  hun- 
dred and  seventy-three  feet  long  and  four  hun- 
dred and  forty  wide,  inclosing  a  tank  and  pavil- 
ion and  garden  besides  the  temple  proper.  The 
temple  consists  of  different  quadrangular 
courtyards,  one  within  another,  and  has  at 


yo  Braj 

either  end  lofty  gate  towers  covered  with  gro- 
tesque sculpture.  In  the  central  court,  which 
may  be  called  the  Holy  of  Holies,  in  front  of 
the  image,  stands  a  pillar  sixty  feet  high,  made 
of  copper  gilt,  at  a  cost  of  ten  thousand  rupees. 
The  front,  or  western,  entrance  to  the  outer 
quadrangular  court  is  surmounted  by  a  hand- 
some pavilion  in  the  Mathura  style  which  con- 
trasts favorably  with  the  coarser  work  of  the 
temple  gate  towers. 

The  image  of  Krishna  Is  carried  once  a  year 
during  the  Bramotsav  festival  in  the  month  of 
Chait,  corresponding  to  our  March-April,  on 
a  huge  car  which  is  kept  in  an  adjoining  shed, 
to  a  garden  six  hundred  and  ninety  yards  dis- 
tant, where,  in  the  midst  of  the  garden,  stands 
a  pavilion  especially  for  his  use.  This  festival 
continues  for  ten  days,  and  each  day  the  god  is 
conveyed  on  a  different  vehicle,  as  a  litter,  a 
throne  or  tabernacle,  or  on  some  demigod,  as 
the  sun  or  moon,  Garura,  Hanuman,  or  Shesha, 
or  on  some  animal,  as  a  horse,  elephant,  lion, 
swan,  etc.  The  huge  car  is  only  used  on  the 
closing  day,  when,  of  course,  the  crowd  is  the 
largest.  The  procession  each  day  is  accom- 
panied by  torches,  music,  incense,  and  a  body- 
guard of  troops,  furnished  by  the  rajah  of 
Bharatpur.     The  image  of  Krishna  is  placed 


SATI   BURJ,    MATHURA 

(A    faith fvil    widow's   tower,    commemorating   her    immolation 

with  the  body  of  her  husband.     Built  in  1570.) 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         71 

in  the  center  of  the  car,  surrounded  with  Brah- 
mans  with  fans  and  by  others  on  foot,  chanting 
hymns  of  praise  in  Sanskrit.  The  car  is  drawn 
by  ropes,  all  classes  of  Brahmans  and  ''twice- 
born"  taking  part.  The  distance  is  covered  in 
two  hours.  On  the  night  of  the  close  of  the 
festival  there  is  a  display  of  fireworks  wit- 
nessed by  an  immense  throng.  The  temple  of 
Radha  Raman,  built  by  the  late  Sah  Kunden 
Lai;,  of  Lakhnau,  at  a  cost  of  ten  lakhs  of  ru- 
pees, stands  in  a  courtyard  with  a  large  gate- 
way. It  has  in  front  a  colonnade  of  spiral 
marble  pillars,  each  made  of  one  piece  of  mar- 
ble, and  is  surmounted  by  life-size  representa- 
tions of  shepherdesses  of  Braj  in  various  atti- 
tudes and  flanked  by  grotesque  creatures  which 
add  nothing  to  the  beauty  of  the  building. 
There  is  a  small  temple,  Radha  Indra  Kishore, 
built  by  Rani  Indra  Jit  Kuwar,  of  Tikari.  It 
stands  on  a  high  plinth,  is  seventy  feet  square, 
has  three  aisles  and  a  sanctuary,  the  whole 
surmounted  by  a  sloping  tow^er  with  a  finial 
covered  with  gilt.  Each  pillar  is  made  of  a 
single  piece  of  stone.  The  Radha  Gopal  temple 
was  built  by  the  maharajah  of  Gwalior.  It  has 
a  nave  fifty-eight  feet  long,  with  four  aisles 
and  a  sacrarium  twenty-one  feet  deep.  The 
building  is  so  constructed  that,  while  open  and 


72  Braj 

airy,  the  glare  of  the  sun  is  avoided.  The 
Madhu  Bilas  temple,  on  the  Mathura  road, 
already  referred  to,  was  commenced  about 
twenty  years  ago  by  the  late  rajah  of  Jaipur, 
Madhu  Singh,  in  memory  of  his  guru,  but  has 
never  been  completed,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  it 
ever  will  be,  as  it  has  come  to  be  believed  that 
whoever  completes  the  building  will  forfeit  his 
life.  It  has  already  cost  about  eighteen  lakhs 
of  rupees.  It  is  surrounded  by  a  courtyard 
with  cloisters,  built  of  Bharatpur  sandstone. 
The  interior  of  the  temple  is  beautifully  carved, 
the  reticulated  tracery  being  especially  notice- 
able. The  roof  is  supported  by  enormous  sin- 
gle-shaft sandstone  pillars.  The  sacrarium  is 
divided  into  three  shrines,  intended  to  receive 
the  god  Krishna  in  his  threefold  character,  and 
is  beautifully  faced  with  marble  inlaid  with 
various  precious  stones.  The  floor  of  the  tem- 
ple is  laid  in  marble.  The  whole  is  done  in 
admirable  taste,  and  has  a  rich  and  elegant 
appearance.  As  the  temple  has  not  been  con- 
secrated, visitors  are  permitted  to  enter  and 
inspect  the  building. 

(4)  Tanks.  There  are  only  two  tanks  of 
any  great  renown.  One  of  these  is  back  of  the 
Seth's  temple,  and  is  called  Brahm  Kund.  The 
other,  Gobind  Kund,  is  near  the  Mathura  road. 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         73 

and  was  inclosed  by  Chaudharani  Kali  Sundari, 
of  Rajshahi,  at  a  cost  of  thirty  thousand 
rupees. 

(5)  Ghats.  For  about  a  mile  and  a  half  the 
river  front  is  lined  by  a  succession  of  ghats. 
The  one  highest  up  the  river  is  called  Kali 
Mardan  Ghat,  where  Krishna  plunged  into  the 
stream  to  attack  the  serpent  Kaliya.  At  the 
southern  end  of  the  town  is  Kesi  Ghat,  where 
he  slew  the  demon  of  that  name.  Chir  Ghat, 
where  he  stole  the  bathers'  clothes,  is  shown 
back  of  the  temple  of  Radha  Raman,  although 
another  Chir  Ghat  is  shown  at  the  village  of 
Siyara,  above  the  town,  on  the  course  of  pil- 
grimage. There  are  a  number  of  large  build- 
ings along  the  river  bank,  but  perhaps  the  most 
noticeable  is  the  Ganga  Mohan  Kunj,  built  by 
Ganga,  the  Rani  of  Suraj  Mai,  the  first  of 
the  Bharatpur  rajahs.  ''The  river  front,  which 
is  all  that  was  ever  completed,  has  a  high  and 
massive  basement  story,  which,  on  the  land 
side,  as  seen  from  the  interior  of  the  court,  be- 
comes a  mere  plinth  for  the  support  of  a 
majestic  double  cloister  with  broad  and  lofty 
arch  and  massive  clustered  pier."  It  was  in 
this  house  that  a  large  company  of  missionaries 
met,  first  in  1888  and  annually  for  several  years 
afterward,  at  the  time  of  the  Brahmotsav  fes- 


74  Braj 

tival,  and  from  which  they  went  forth  to 
preach  to  the  multitudes,  and  where  the  plans 
for  the  expansion  of  the  mission  in  Braj  were 
initiated.  Permission  was  always  readily  ob- 
tained from  the  Bharatpur  Durbar,  which  con- 
trolled the  building,  the  only  stipulation  being 
that  the  occupants,  out  of  deference  to  the  prej- 
udices of  the  Brahmans,  abstain  from  the  use 
of  meat. 

7.  Baladeva.  The  pilgrims  having  spent  some 
time  at  Brindaban,  and  some  of  them,  perhaps, 
having  decided  to  spend  the  remnant  of  their 
days  in  that  holy  place,  they  pass  on  their  way 
down  the  eastern  side  of  the  river  to  the  next 
important  place,  Baladeva.  On  the  way  they 
visit  Bel-ban,  and  Bhadra-ban,  and  Bhandir- 
ban,  where  Balarama  was  first  named  after  he 
had  slain  the  demon  Pralomba,  and  Dangoli, 
and  Man-Sarowar,  one  of  the  four  sacred  lakes 
of  Braj,  and  Lohaban,  where  the  demon  Lo- 
hasur  was  overthrown,  and  Gopalpur,  and 
Raval,  and  Bhuriya  ka  Khera,  where  Krishna 
clandestinely  met  Manvati  and  had  her  hus- 
band beaten  by  his  mother-in-law,  and  then  to 
Bandigaown,  and  finally  to  Baladeva.  Here 
is  the  famous  temple  of  Baladeva,  standing  in 
the  center  of  the  town.  This  temple  was  built 
by  Seth  Syam  Das,  of  Delhi,  toward  the  end 


The  Land  and  the  Religion        75 

of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  the  various 
courts  by  different  persons  from  time  to  time 
from  1768  to  1828.  This  shrine  is  a  very  pop- 
ular one  among  all  classes,  and  thousands  of 
pilgrims  resort  to  it,  especially  during  the  two 
great  festivals  which  are  held  annually. 

8.  Mahaban.  The  next  place  is  Mahaban, 
a  town  of  5,523  souls,  standing  on  a  hill  on  the 
left  bank  of  the  Jamuna  six  miles  below  Ma- 
thura,  and  about  six  miles  from  Baladeva  and 
one  mile  from  Gokula.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  orig- 
inal Gokula  of  Sanskrit  literature,  and  the 
events  in  the  childhood  life  of  Krishna  oc- 
curred here,  and  not  at  the  more  modern 
adjacent  town.  There  is  no  doubt  that  here 
stood  some  of  the  great  Buddhist  monasteries 
which  were  founded  in  the  vicinity  of  Mathura 
during  the  supremacy  of  that  religion,  for 
wherever  excavations  are  made  for  buildings 
many  fragments  of  Buddhist  sculpture  are 
found,  and  it  seems  plain  that  the  Klisobora 
mentioned  by  Arrian  and  Pliny  is  the  town  of 
Mahaban,  and  the  gods  described  by  them  as 
Dionysius  and  Hercules  are  none  other  than 
our  old  friends  Krishna  and  Balarama.  Here 
are  to  be  found  the  traditional  places  connected 
with  the  early  life  of  the  deified  hero.  In  the 
ruins  of  an  old  fort  occupying  the  hill  over- 


'jd  Braj 

looking  the  Jamuna  may  be  found  the  shrine 
of  Syam  Lala,  marking  the  reputed  spot  where 
Jasoda  gave  birth  to  Maya  or  Joga-nidra,  who 
was  substituted  by  Vasadeva  for  the  child 
Krishna.  Nanda  and  Jasoda's  dwelling  house 
may  be  found  in  a  covered  court  with  eighty 
remarkable  pillars  called  Assi  Khamba.  There 
are  five  rows  of  these  pillars,  sixteen  in  a  row, 
dividing  the  building  into  four  aisles.  The 
pillars  vary  in  size  and  pattern,  the  outer  ones 
being  made  of  massive  stone  shafts  carved 
horizontally  and  with  capitals  decorated  with 
heads  and  other  figures,  while  of  the  inside 
pillars  some  are  plain  and  some  are  highly 
decorated.  Four  of  the  pillars  represent  the 
four  mythical  ages.  Several  domestic  articles 
of  Krishna's  babyhood  are  shown,  as  his 
cradle,  his  mother's  churn,  etc.  It  is  plain 
that  at  one  time  Mahaban  was  a  Buddhist  cen- 
ter, and  when  the  Mohammedans  gained  the 
supremacy  in  India  this  was  long  in  their  pos- 
session. It  would  seem  that  the  fort  was  orig- 
inally built  by  one  Rana  Katira,  of  Mewar,  who 
had  been  driven  out  by  the  Mohammedans  and 
settled  here  with  the  Rajah  Dig  Pal,  married 
his  daughter,  and  subsequently  succeeded  him. 
The  fort  was  taken  by  the  Mohammedans  in 
the   time   of  Ala-ud-din   by   Sufi   Yahya,   of 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         77 

Mashad,  who  disguised  himself  and  his  soldiers 
as  Hindu  ladies  who  desired  to  visit  the  shrine 
of  Syam  Lala,  and  were  carried  inside  the  fort 
in  palanquins.  The  town  was  sacked  by  Mah- 
mud  of  Ghazni  in  A.  D.  1017,  from  which 
catastrophe  it  has  never  recovered.  It  is  said 
that  the  great  temple  was  once  used  as  a 
mosque. 

9.  Gokula.  The  river  suburb  of  Mahaban 
is  Gokula,  which  must  be  visited  next  in  order, 
as  it  contains  some  noted  shrines  dear  to  the 
heart  of  the  Vaishnava  pilgrims.  There  are 
a  number  of  temples  in  Gokula,  the  most  noted 
of  which  are  Gokul-Nath,  Madan  Mohan,  and 
Bitthal-Nath,  built  in  A.  D.  1511,  and  Dwar- 
aka-Nath  and  Bal  Krishan,  founded  in  A.  D. 
1546  and  A.  D.  1636  respectively. 

The  most  notable  thing  connected  with  this 
small  town  of  3,880  inhabitants  is  that  it  is  the 
home  of  the  Vallabha  Charyas,  or  Gokulastha 
Gosains,  the  epicureans  of  the  East,  who 
preach  and  practice  the  doctrine  that  life  con- 
sists rather  in  social  enjoyments  than  in  soli- 
tude and  mortification  of  the  flesh.  The 
founder  of  this  sect,  the  exponent  of  ultimate 
Krishnaolatry,  was  Vallabha  Swami,  who  was 
born  in  A.  D.  1479,  being  the  second  son  of  a 
Telinga  Brahman,  Lakhshman  Bhatt,  of  the 


78  BrajT 

Vishnu  Swami  sect.  He  was  born  when  his 
parents  were  fleeing  from  an  outburst  of  fanat- 
icism in  Benares,  to  which  they  had  gone  on 
a  pilgrimage.  They,  in  their  fear,  abandoned 
him  under  a  tree,  but  on  their  return  found 
him  still  alive  and  carried  him  back  to  Benares, 
thence  to  Gokula,  where  he  was  brought  up. 
He  commenced  his  career  at  the  age  of  eleven, 
and  wandered  over  a  large  part  of  India,  prop- 
agating his  faith.  He  often  visited  the  land 
of  Braj,  founding,  in  1520,  the  great  temple  of 
Sri-Nath,  at  Gobardhana.  His  permanent 
home  was  at  Benares,  where  he  died  in  153 1. 
He  had  two  sons.  His  second  son,  Bitthal- 
Nath,  succeeded  him,  who  spread  his  doctrines 
throughout  the  south  and  west  of  India.  In 
1565  he  settled  down  in  Gokula,  and  at  the  age 
of  seventy  he  died  at  Gobardhana.  His  fourth 
son,  Gokul-Nath,  of  the  seven  born  to  him  and 
his  two  wives,  is  the  most  noted.  The  Gokul- 
astha  Gosains  are  the  Mormons  of  the  East, 
and  claim  to  have  had  their  doctrines  revealed 
directly  from  heaven.  They  are  looked  upon 
as  incarnations  of  Krishna  and  worshiped  as 
such.  The  cultus  is  the  natural  result  of  the 
Bhakti  Marg,  or  ''way  of  faith,"  of  the  Bha- 
gavad  Gita  in  connection  with  the  narratives 
of  the  Vishnu  Purana.     "This  doctrine  main- 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         79 

tains,"  says  Mr.  Jones,  "that  by  a  devotion  to 
a  personal  God  salvation  is  achieved.  This 
idea  separates  this  doctrine  from,  and  appar- 
ently antagonizes,  the  prevailing  philosophy 
of  the  land — Vedantism.  This  cult  of  Bhakti  is 
connected  with  Krishnaolatry,  which  is  the 
worship  of  the  most  unworthy  and  licentious 
god  of  the  Hindu  pantheon."  And  the  Go- 
kulastha  Gosain  takes  the  place  of  Krishna 
and  claims  the  same  privileges.  More  will  be 
said  in  connection  with  the  account  of  the 
Hindu  reformers  given  in  the  next  chapter. 

Grotesque  silver  toys  and  ornaments  are 
made  at  Gokul  and  sold  to  the  pilgrims  in  large 
numbers.  Shapes  of  animals,  as  cows,  deers, 
and  peacocks,  are  made  with  some  skill,  al- 
though roughly  finished,  and  the  curious  shapes 
often  render  them  interesting  souvenirs,  and 
the  silversmiths  can  cleverly  copy  any  model 
that  may  be  given  them.  After  visiting  all  the 
sacred  places  at  Gokul  the  weary  pilgrims  re- 
turn to  the  holy  city  of  Mathura  and  sit  down 
to  rest  at  Visrant  Ghat,  from  which  they  set 
out.  It  has  been  a  wonderful  pilgrimage. 
They  have  made  the  Pari-Krama,  the  perambu- 
lation of  Braj.  They  have  finished  the  Ban 
jatra,  "the  forest  journey,"  the  Braj  mandal, 
the  grand  tour.    They  have  learned  the  per- 


sonal  history  of  the  deified  rake,  and  reconse- 
crate themselves  to  the  god  of  lust,  and  are 
prepared  as  never  before  to  walk  the  Bhakti 
Marg,  "the  way  of  faith,"  of  devotion  to  a 
personal  god. 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         8i 


V 

The  Later  Vaishnava  Sects 

I.  Hinduism  Changeable.  The  religion  of 
the  Aryans  who  found  their  home  in  India  is 
not  unchangeable.  It  was  Vedism,  then  Brah- 
manism,  and  now  Hinduism,  yet  each  new 
evolution  retains  something  of  the  older  cult, 
so  that  in  India  to-day  may  be  found  combined 
with  the  most  mystical  pantheism  the  grossest 
polytheism.  Even  Hinduism  is  changing. 
This  evolution  has  a  history.  "In  a  sense," 
says  Mr.  J.  P.  Jones  in  Krishna  and  Christ, 
"the  all-pervasive  pantheism  of  Brahmanism 
made  a  certain  form  of  incarnation  a  necessity 
from  the  earliest  days.  The  ancient  Aryans 
could  not  rest  satisfied  with  the  Unknown  and 
the  Absolute  of  their  Vedantism;  so  they 
speedily  began  to  erect  for  their  ever-growing 
pantheon  an  endless  procession  of  emanations. 
But  it  was  probably  the  phenomenal  success 
of  Gautama,  and  especially  the  posthumous  in- 
fluence of  his  life  and  example,  that  opened  the 
eyes  of  the  Brahmans  and  suggested  to  them 
the  supreme  need  of  an  avatar  (descent)  for 
the   popularizing  of  their   faith.     And   thus 


S2  Braj 

originated  that  vast  system  of  descents,  or  in- 
carnations, which  have  multipHed  so  greatly 
and  developed  so  grotesquely  all  over  the 
land."  The  Krishna  cultus  is  a  later  phase  of 
Hinduism,  and  the  narratives  of  the  Puranas, 
more  modern  than  those  of  the  Bhagavad 
Gita,  and  the  Brahma  Vaivarta  Purana  and 
the  Hindi  Braj  Bilas  are  the  latest  authorities 
on  the  lives  of  Krishna  and  his  mistress  Radha, 
and  these,  according  to  able  authority,  were 
not  written  till  the  sixteenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  respectively.  These  show  the  popu- 
lar beliefs.  But  there  have  arisen  at  Mathura 
and  vicinity  a  number  of  peculiar  sects  which 
must  be  noticed  in  order  to  get  a  complete  view 
of  Krishnaism.  Many  of  the  ethical  teachings 
of  Krishnaism  may  be  learned  from  the  mod- 
ern worship,  the  pilgrimages,  festivals,  hymns, 
prayers,  offerings,  etc.,  in  which  his  votaries 
take  part.  This  worship  shows  the  hold  he 
has  upon  the  popular  mind,  and  is  an  index 
to  the  character  of  the  god  and  his  religion, 
and  to  the  effect  they  have  upon  the  lives 
and  morals  of  the  people.  It  shows  also  that 
although  Krishna  is  the  central  attraction  in 
all  the  elaborate  ceremonies  associated  there- 
with, yet  his  numerous  followers  are  far  from 
being  of  one  mind  as  to  who  he  is  and  as  to 


The  Land  and  the  Religion         83 

the  manner  in  which  he  should  be  approached. 
A  mere  surface  knowledge  of  Krishnaism 
would  lead  an  outsider  to  believe  that  all  the 
great  mass  of  earnest  worshipers  believe  the 
same  thing,  and  are  actuated  by  the  same  mo- 
tives, whereas  a  deeper  insight  reveals  the  fact 
that  there  are  many  forms  of  belief  and  conse- 
quently many  sects,  and  that  there  are  differ- 
ences between  these  Krishnaite  Vaishnavas 
as  wide  as  between  the  strictest  Romanists  and 
Protestants,  or  Calvinists  and  Arminians,  of 
the  Christian  faith.  So  that  one  can  truly  say, 
with  the  late  Sir  Monier  Williams,  that  the 
''capacity  for  almost  endless  expansion  causes 
almost  endless  sectarian  divisions  even  among 
the  followers  of  any  particular  line  of  doc- 
trine." 

2.  The  Modern  Sects.  In  the  Vaishnava 
Holy  Land  there  may  be  found  a  number  of 
Vaishnava  sects  differing  in  various  particu- 
lars from  the  orthodox  faith.  The  leading 
sampadayas,  or  sects,  are  called  the  Sri  Vaish- 
navas, the  Nimbarak  Vaishnavas,  the  Madhva 
Vaishnavas,  and  the  Vishnu  Swamis,  or  the 
more  modem  Vallabha  Charyas  or  Gokulastha 
Gosains.  They  are  all  worshipers  of  Vishnu's 
eighth  incarnation. 

(i)  The  Sri  Vaishnavas.    The  Sri  Vaish- 


84  Braj 

nava  sect  is  the  most  ancient  and  respectable 
of  the  Vaishnava  sects,  and  its  tenets  are  based 
for  the  teachings  of  Ramanuja,  who  flourished 
in  the  twelfth  century  of  the  Christian  era  in 
southern  India  and  taught  the  union  of  Vishnu 
with  the  Supreme  and  gathered  converts  from 
all  castes.  The  largest  temple  at  Brindaban, 
that  of  Rang  Ji,  known  as  the  Seth's  temple, 
is  dedicated  to  that  form  of  worship  and  is 
attended  largely  by  foreigners  from  the  south, 
who  follow  rites  and  ceremonies  quite  distinct 
from  those  of  the  natives  of  the  place.  The 
Sri  Vaishnavas,  like  the  other  leading  sects, 
may  be  known  by  their  sectarian  mark,  which 
in  this  case  consists  of  two  streaks  of  white 
down  the  forehead  joined  at  the  root  of  the 
nose  with  a  slight  streak  of  red  between.  Their 
leading  dogma  is  that  \^ishnu  is  only  visible 
in  creation  as  an  effect  and  not  as  a  cause. 
They  also  refuse  to  admit  Radha,  the  mistress 
of  Krishna,  as  an  object  of  worship,  thus  show- 
ing that  they  are  followers  of  that  older  and 
purer  Krishna  cultus  which  either  ignores  the 
existence  of  Radha  altogether  or  regards  her 
merely  as  his  mistress. 

(2)  The  Nimbaraks.  The  Nimbarak  Vaish- 
navas are  so  called  from  the  legend  that  the 
sun  god,   Suraj   Naraiyana,   descended   from 


The  Land  axd  the  Religion         85 

the  Nim  tree,  under  which  the  founder  of  the 
sect,  an  ascetic  named  Bhash-Karacharya,  was 
dining.  As  observed  within  the  environments 
of  Braj,  they  may  be  especially  found  among 
the  solitary  ascetics  who  live  in  little  hermit- 
ages in  the  sacred  groves.  IMany  of  them 
live  simple  lives,  spending  much  of  their  time 
in  contemplation  and  worship.  They  have  but 
little  literature,  but  many  of  their  teachings  are 
eminently  philosophical  and  not  unlike  Chris- 
tian truth.  They  believe  in  salvation  by  faith, 
and  in  the  conscious  existence  of  the  soul  after 
death,  and,  if  faithful  in  this  life,  in  the  enjoy- 
ment in  the  future  world  of  the  visible  presence 
of  the  Deity.  They  further  believe  in  the  ex- 
istence of  one  infinite  and  invisible  God,  the 
only  real  existence  and  the  only  proper  object 
of  worship.  But  owing  to  human  limitations 
it  becomes  necessary  for  him  to  manifest  him- 
self to  man's  comprehension.  For  this  reason 
they  worship  Krishna  as  God.  They  look  upon 
Krishna  and  Radha  as  the  symbols  of  divine 
union  and  love.  It  matters  not  whether  they 
are  real  persons  or  not,  for  they  answer  the 
purpose  of  helping  the  mind  to  understand 
God  and  his  nature  and  arouse  in  man  reli- 
gious enthusiasm. 

(3)  The  Aladhva  Vaishnavas.    The  Madhva 


86  Braj 

Vaishnavas  are  not  so  numerous  as  the  others, 
and  within  the  bounds  of  the  Krishna  Holy 
Land  have  no  temples  of  any  note.  Their 
founder,  Madhva  Charya,  was  born  in  south- 
ern India  in  1199.  They  are  dualists  (Dvaita), 
in  opposition  to  the  non-dualist  (Advaita)  sys- 
tem of  Sanka  Charya,  holding  that  there  is  an 
essential  difference  between  Jiv-atman,  or  the 
principle  of  life,  and  Param-atman,  or  the 
Supreme  Being. 

(4)  The  Vishnu  Swamis.  There  are  but 
few  of  the  Vishnu  Swamis  to  be  found,  but 
their  place  is  taken  by  the  Vallabha  Charyas, 
or  Gokulastha  Gosains,  referred  to  in  the  last 
chapter.  The  Vishnu  Swami  doctrines  were 
almost  entirely  remodeled  in  the  fifteenth 
century  by  the  Gokula  Gosain,  Vallabha 
Charya,  who  was  regarded  by  his  followers 
as  an  incarnation  of  Krishna  and  worshiped 
with  licentious  rites,  his  system  being  called 
Pushti  Marga,  "the  way  of  eating  and  drinking 
and  enjoying  ourself." 

The  modern  priests  of  this  sect  are  known 
as  maharajas,  and  stand  to  the  worshipers  in 
the  place  of  Krishna  himself.  The  maharajas 
have  occasional  sources  of  income  as  follows : 

"For  homage  by  sight,  Rs.  5 ;  for  homage 
by  touch,  Rs.  20 ;  for  the  honor  of  washing  the 


The  Land  and  the  Religion        87 

maharaja's  foot,  Rs.  35 ;  for  the  credit  of 
swinging  him,  Rs.  40;  for  the  glory  of  rub- 
bing sweet  unguents  on  his  body,  Rs.  42;  for 
the  joy  of  sitting  with  him,  Rs.  60 ;  for  the  bHss 
of  occupying  the  same  room,  Rs.  50  to  500; 
for  the  performance  of  the  circular  dance, 
Rs.  100  to  200;  for  the  delight  of  eating  the 
pan  supari  thrown  out  by  the  maharaja,  Rs. 
17;  for  drinking  the  water  in  which  the  ma- 
haraja has  bathed,  or  in  which  his  foul  linen 
has  been  washed,  Rs.  19." 

"They  are  the  epicureans  of  the  East,  and 
are  not  ashamed  to  avow  their  belief  that  the 
ideal  life  consists  rather  in  social  enjoyment 
than  in  solitude  and  mortification.  Such  a 
creed  is  naturally  destructive  of  all  self-re- 
straint even  in  matters  where  indulgence  is 
by  common  consent  held  criminal;  and  the 
profligacy  to  which  it  has  given  rise  is  so 
notorious  that  the  maharaja  of  Jaypore  was 
moved  to  expel  from  his  capital  the  ancient 
image  of  Gokul  Chandrama,  for  which  the  sect 
entertained  a  special  veneration,  and  has  fur- 
ther conceived  such  a  prejudice  against  Vaish- 
navas  in  general  that  all  his  subjects  are  com- 
pelled, before  they  appear  in  his  presence,  to 
mark  their  forehead  with  the  three  horizontal 
lines  that  indicate  a  votary  of  Siva.    The  scan- 


88  Braj 

dalous  practices  of  the  Gosains  and  the  un- 
natural subserviency  of  the  people  in  minister- 
ing to  their  gratification  received  a  crushing 
expose  in  a  cause  celehre  for  libel  tried  before 
the  Supreme  Court  of  Bombay  in  1862." 
(Mathura  Memoir.) 

Before  anyone  can  claim  the  full  privilege 
of  communion  with  the  sect  he  is  required  to 
make  a  full  dedication  of  himself  and  all  he 
has  {tan,  man,  dhan — body,  soul,  and  wealth), 
in  the  following  language: 

"One.  The  god  Krishna  is  my  refuge.  Dis- 
tracted by  the  infinite  pain  and  torment  caused 
by  the  separation  from  Krishna,  which  has 
extended  over  a  space  of  time  measured  by 
thousands  of  years,  I  now  to  the  holy  Krishna 
do  dedicate  my  bodily  faculties,  my  life,  my 
soul,  and  its  belongings  {tan,  man,  dhan), 
with  my  wife,  my  house,  my  children,  my 
whole  substance,  and  my  own  self.  O  Krishna, 
I  am  thy  servant." 

By  this  act  of  dedication  a  man  submits 
to  the  pleasure  of  the  Gosain  not  only  his 
wealth,  but  the  virginity  of  his  daughter,  or 
his  newly  married  wife;  and  such  adulterous 
connection  is  looked  upon  as  the  same  as 
ecstatic  union  with  the  Divine  Being  and  as 
the  most  meritorious  act  of  devotion  which 


The  Land  and  the  Religion        89 

can  be  rendered.  In  giving  judgment  in  the 
celebrated  libel  suit  referred  to  above  Sir 
Matthew  Sausse,  the  chief  justice,  said: 

'The  maharajas  have  been  sedulous  in 
identifying  themselves  with  the  god  Krishna 
by  means  of  their  own  writings  and  teachings, 
and  by  the  similarity  of  ceremonies  and  ad- 
dresses which  they  require  to  be  offered  to 
themselves  by  their  followers.  All  songs  con- 
nected with  the  god  Krishna  which  were 
brought  before  us  were  of  an  amorous  char- 
acter, and  it  appeared  that  songs  of  a  corrupt- 
ing and  licentious  tendency,  both  in  ideas  and 
expression,  are  sung  by  young  females  to  the 
maharaja  upon  festive  occasions,  in  which  they 
are  identified  with  the  god  in  his  most  licen- 
tious aspect.  In  these  songs,  as  well  as  stories, 
both  written  and  traditional,  which  latter  are 
treated  as  of  a  religious  character  in  the  sect, 
the  subject  of  sexual  intercourse  is  most  prom- 
inent. Adultery  is  made  familiar  to  the  minds 
of  all ;  it  is  nowhere  discouraged  or  denounced, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  in  some  of  the  stories, 
those  persons  who  have  committed  that  great 
moral  and  social  offense  are  commended."  In 
the  light  of  these  facts  it  is  scarcely  necessary 
for  Swami  Viva  Kananda  to  extol  the  Krishna 
cultus  before  a  Western  audience,  or  for  Mrs. 


90  Braj 

Besant  to  say,  "The  ablest  missionary  can  offer 
to  the  Brahman  nothing  more  exquisitely  sat- 
isfactory to  the  religious  emotions  than  the 
Avatars  of  Rama  and  Krishna." 

"What  can  the  ablest  missionary  offer  to  the 
Brahman  that  he  does  not  already  possess  in 
his  own  religion,  and  how  can  he  hope  to  win 
him  to  modern  presentments  of  spiritual  truths 
already  familiar  to  him  in  subtler  and  pro- 
founder  ancient  dicta?  Nothing  deeper  and 
loftier  can  be  offered  to  him  in  religious  phi- 
losophy than  the  Vedanta,  nothing  more  sub- 
limely spiritual  than  his  Upanishads,  nothing 
more  nobly  moral  than  his  Bhagavad  Gita  and 
other  teachings  in  the  Mahabharata,  nothing 
more  exquisitely  satisfying  to  the  religious 
emotions  than  the  Avatars  of  Rama  and 
Krishna,  and  the  austerer  glories  of  Mahesh- 
vara.  Why,  then,  seek  to  convert  him?"  (Re- 
view of  Reviews,  June,  1894,  p.  600.) 

Truly  the  late  Bishop  Caldwell  is  correct 
when  he  says :  "The  stories  related  of  Krishna's 
life  do  more  than  anything  else  to  destroy  the 
morals  and  corrupt  the  imaginations  of  the 
Hindu  youth." 

(5)  Other  Sects.  Besides  the  above-named 
sects  there  may  be  found  living  within  the 
limits   of  Braj    several   other   more   modern, 


The  Land  and  the  Religion        91 

though  less  important,  Vaishnava  communi- 
ties, such  as  the  Gaurya  Vaishnavas,  the  Radha 
Vallabhas,  and  the  followers  of  Swami  Hari 
Das.  The  peculiar  doctrine  of  the  Gaurya 
Vaishnavas  is  that  in  worship  the  repetition 
of  the  name  Krishna  is  the  chief  thing,  that 
even  the  formal  reciting  of  the  name  will  in- 
sure salvation,  and  that  aside  from  this  all 
other  acts  of  devotion  are  nonessential.  This 
sect  may  be  known  by  their  caste  mark  and 
their  rosary,  the  former  consisting  of  two 
white  streaks  down  the  forehead  joined  at  the 
root  of  the  nose  and  extended  to  near  the  tip, 
and  the  latter  of  one  hundred  and  eight  beads 
made  of  the  wood  of  the  Tulsi  plant. 

The  Radha  Vallabhas,  founded  by  the  vo- 
luptuous Hari  Vans,  who  is  now  known  by  his 
title  of  Hit  Ji,  unlike  the  Sri  Vaishnavas,  give 
Radha  the  preference  over  Krishna  and  deify 
her  as  the  goddess  of  lust.  The  followers  of 
Swami  Hari  Das,  known  as  Gosains,  own  one 
of  the  most  conspicuous  temples  at  Brindaban, 
the  only  one,  indeed,  owned  by  them  exclu- 
sively in  India.  None  of  them  can  boast  of 
much  learning,  nor  do  they  differ  materially 
from  the  great  mass  of  Vaishnavas,  who  are 
especially  devoted  to  Krishna. 

All  these  sects  are  Vaishnavas ;  that  is,  they 


J 


92  Braj 

believe  in  the  various  incarnations  of  Vishnu 
and  worship  him  as  the  great  god  of  the  pan- 
theon. Among  the  various  Avatars,  or  "de- 
scents," they  discriminate  in  favor  of  the  hero 
of  Mathura,  Krishna,  the  son  of  Basudeva  and 
Devaki.  !Many  of  them  worship  him  as  su- 
preme, deeming  him  not  so  much  as  an  incar- 
nation of  Vishnu  as  Vishnu  himself.  They  ac- 
cept his  human  life  as  a  part  of  the  divine 
plan  and  believe  in  the  Puranic  legends  as  his- 
torical events.  The  so-called  reformers  sadly 
need  reforming  themselves.  The  modem 
Krishna  cultus  is  degrading  and  corrupt.  The 
life  of  the  founder  was  puerile,  fickle,  and 
immoral,  and  it  is  not  possible  that  the  disciple 
be  greater  than  his  lord.  In  the  interest  of  an 
oppressed  humanity  there  is  need  of  a  greater 
Deliverer  and  a  purer  faith. 


PART  SECOND 

THE  MISSION 


"  Dejected  India,  lift  thy  downcast  eyes, 
And  mark  the  hour  whose  faithful  steps  for  thee 
Through  Time's  press' d  ranks  bring  on  the  Jubilee. ' 


The  Mission  95 


PART  SECOND 

The  Mission 


I 

The  Founding  of  a  Mission 

I.  How  It  Came  to  Be.  The  opening  of 
the  Mathura  Mission  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  was  the  result  of  a  combination 
of  peculiar  providential  circumstances.  In 
1886,  when  the  late  Rev.  Dennis  Osborne  was 
presiding  elder  of  the  Allahabad  District,  then 
a  part  of  the  South  India  Conference,  he  felt 
strongly  impressed  that  Mathura  should  be 
opened  as  a  mission  station  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church.  He  was  aware  that  the 
Baptist  Missionary  Society  had  been  working 
there  since  before  the  mutiny  of  1857,  and  that 
the  Church  Missionary  Society  had  an  agent 
there,  but  still  he  felt  strangely  urged  to  in- 
sist that  his  church,  also,  whose  work  had 
expanded  and  overflowed  from  the  trans- 
Ganges  field,  should  have  a  part  in  the  difficult 
task  of  overthrowing  this  great  Vaishnava 
stronghold.     Concerning  this  impression  Mr. 


96  Braj 

Osborne  some  time  before  his  death  wrote  the 
author  as  follows : 

"It  was  some  time  in  the  year  1886,  I  being 
at  the  time  a  member  of  the  South  India  Con- 
ference and  presiding  elder  of  the  Allahabad 
District,  that  I  was  praying  and  pondering 
over  the  extension  of  missionary  work  in  the 
district.  Our  resources  in  men  and  money 
were  at  the  time  very  slender;  still  God  was 
with  us,  and  we  were  laying  foundations  in 
his  name.  We  had  already  occupied  Agra, 
and  one  night  I  was  distinctly  awakened  by 
a  voice  saying,  ^Occupy  Mathura  for  Christ!' 
It  was  not  a  dream,  for  I  beheld  nothing,  nor 
yet  an  audible  voice.  It  was  a  voice  to  my 
spirit,  clear  and  unmistakable.  Regarding  it 
probably  as  a  mere  natural  impression  arising 
from  my  previous  thought,  I  paid  little  heed 
to  it,  and  fell  asleep  again.  The  voice,  how- 
ever, was  distinctly  repeated  twice,  and  I  could 
mistake  it  no  longer,  and  immediately  men- 
tioned it  to  my  wife.  I  had  no  acquaintance 
with  Mathura,  but  so  firmly  was  I  persuaded 
that  God  called  us  there  that  I  shortly  visited 
that  city  and  was  confirmed  in  my  belief  that 
Providence  was  beckoning  to  us  to  enter  this 
field.  Hence  at  the  next  Annual  Conference, 
which  took  place  on  February  3,  1887,  Bishop 


The  Mission  97 

Ninde  presiding,  I  strongly  advocated  the  oc- 
cupation of  Mathura  as  a  mission  field,  and  in 
the  appointments  of  that  Conference  (under 
the  Allahabad  District,  then  changed  to  Mus- 
soorie  District),  the  following  appointment 
appears  for  the  first  time:  'Mathura  Mission, 
to  be  supplied.'  The  Central  Conference  which 
followed  in  Bombay  immediately  afterward 
changed  the  boundaries  of  our  Annual  Confer- 
ence ;  and  Agra  and  Mathura,  with  the  native 
work  in  Allahabad,  went  over  to  the  North 
India  Conference,  with  my  hearty  approval. 
This  gave  to  our  Mathura  Mission  its  best 
opportunity ;  and  since  then  its  record  has  been 
one  of  peculiar  success  under  the  blessing  of 
God." 

At  the  session  of  the  North  India  Conference 
which  met  in  Cawnpur  in  January,  1888,  the 
late  Bishop  (then  Dr.)  Parker,  while  feeling 
that  it  would  be  difficult  to  provide  a  man  or 
money  for  the  enterprise,  yet  felt  the  urgency 
of  it,  and  he  and  Dr.  T.  S.  Johnson,  then  pre- 
siding elder  of  the  Oudh  District  of  the  same 
Conference,  favored  the  matter  in  the  cabinet, 
and  it  was  decided  to  send  a  missionary  to 
Mathura.  The  desire  to  go  to  this  new  field 
had  strangely  taken  hold  of  the  writer,  who 
had  returned  from  leave  the  year  before  and 


98  Braj 

had  just  been  sent  to  Roy  Bareilly,  in  Oudh. 
He  had  never  been  there.  It  had  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  a  hard  field.  It  was  urged  that 
there  was  Httle  hope  of  success  in  such  a 
stronghold  of  Hinduism,  and  that  all  previous 
efforts  to  evangelize  such  places  had  proved 
a  failure.  Still  the  writer  persisted  in  urging 
his  case  before  his  presiding  elder,  who  re- 
minded him  of  these  discouraging  features, 
and  further  told  him  that  there  was  no  house 
in  which  to  live  and  but  little  money  with 
which  to  prosecute  the  work.  But  none  of 
these  things  could  lessen  the  strong  desire  to 
enter  this  field. 

Recently  Dr.  Johnson,  who  was  his  presiding 
elder  at  the  time  Mathura  was  opened,  wrote 
the  author  as  follows : 

'1  have  been  interested  in  that  work  from 
its  beginning.  I  remember  your  continued 
anxiety  to  go  and  open  up  work  in  Mathura. 
At  first  I  discouraged  the  undertaking,  because 
we  had  so  few  men  and  were  so  pressed  for 
money,  and  I  thought  I  could  not  spare  you 
from  my  district ;  but,  as  you  persisted,  I  con- 
cluded it  might  be  of  the  Lord.  I  consulted 
with  Dr.  Parker,  and  he,  too,  said  we  were 
not  able  to  take  up  Mathura  at  that  time. 
But,  as  you  continued  to  plead  to  be  sent  to 


The  Mission  99 

Mathura,  we  decided  in  favor  of  your  going 
and  did  all  we  could  to  assist  you  with  money 
and  workers.  Bishop  Parker  and  myself  have 
often  conversed  about  the  peculiar  manner  in 
which  you  were  led,  and  were  always  glad,  and 
I  still  am,  and  I  have  no  doubt  but  dear  Bishop 
Parker  in  the  heavenly  home  continues  to  think 
with  pleasure  of  his  part  in  making  it  possible 
for  you  to  work  in  Mathura  at  that  time.  It 
soon  became  plain  that  the  Lord  was  in  the 
movement.  May  his  special  blessing  continue 
to  rest  upon  this  work  1" 

The  writer  became  preacher  in  charge  at 
Mathura  in  January,  1888.  At  that  time  the 
whole  of  the  work  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  upper  Doab,  as  the  territory 
lying  between  the  Ganges  and  the  Jamuna 
Rivers  is  called,  was  included  in  the  famous 
Rohilkhand  District,  with  the  late  Bishop 
(then  Dr.)  Parker  as  presiding  elder.  Under 
date  of  January  19  Dr.  Parker  wrote  in  his 
diary:  "This  morning  started  for  Mathura, 
arriving  at  noon.  After  lunch  at  the  Dak 
Bungalow  went  out  to  see  the  city  and  select 
a  location  for  future  work,  and,  if  possible, 
hire  a  house  for  Brother  Scott's  residence. 
We  selected  what  we  think  is  the  best  location, 
hired  half  a  house  for  Brother  Scott,  and  went 


loo  Braj 

all  through  the  city.  Our  whole  party  was 
pleased  with  what  we  saw  and  thankful  that 
we  had  come.  It  does  seem  as  though  a  divine 
hand  were  leading  us  in  this  work  here  at 
Mathura.  I  never  felt  more  sure  that  God 
leads  than  I  now  feel  in  this  matter  of  enter- 
ing Mathura." 

2.  As  It  Was  in  the  Beginning.  The  first 
year  in  Mathura  the  writer  moved  four  times. 
First  he  lived  in  a  room  in  the  Dak  Bungalow 
(hard  by  the  cemetery)  ;  then,  with  his  family, 
in  half  a  hired  house  in  the  civil  lines,  until 
the  heat  of  May  drove  them  out;  and  then  in 
a  small  bungalow  in  the  cantonments  until  the 
fifth  of  January,  1889,  when  they  removed  into 
tents  pitched  on  land  rented  by  the  mission, 
and  on  which  the  mission  house  was  being 
built ;  and  finally,  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  Janu- 
ary, into  a  couple  of  rooms  in  the  parsonage, 
which  was  completed  early  in  1889.  In  Janu- 
ary, 1889,  Dr.  Parker  wrote  in  his  diary  con- 
cerning his  visit  to  Mathura:  "Took  Bishop 
and  Mrs.  Fowler  to  Mathura  and  spent  the 
day  there.  Went  with  them  to  Brindaban. 
New  mission  house  at  Mathura  nearly  finished. 
Preached,  with  pictures,  in  the  evening."  This 
preaching  was  in  the  heart  of  the  city,  in  the 
courtyard  of  a  house  which  we  had  rented 


3 

i  ^ 

^    O 


r^      < 


The  Mission  ioi 

for  a  schoolliouse,  just  back  of  the  present  site 
of  Flora  Hall.  The  writer  showed  some 
magic  lantern  pictures,  Bishop  Fowler  and 
his  son  sat  on  a  stool  in  the  veranda,  and  Dr. 
Parker  preached  to  an  audience  of  Brahmans. 
In  those  days  for  a  helper  the  writer  had  as- 
sociated with  him  a  feeble  old  man,  William 
Plomer,  who  had  been  with  Parker  at  the 
famous  Wesleypur,  in  Oudh,  in  i860.  He  and 
his  wife  had  succeeded  in  opening  a  few  houses 
for  Christian  work  in  the  suburbs,  but  there 
were  no  Christians  of  our  church  in  all  that 
bigoted  Vaishnava  Holy  Land ;  in  fact,  there 
were  very  few  Christians  of  any  church.  Mr. 
Growse,  who  was  collector  and  magistrate 
here  in  1874,  states  officially  that  in  1871-72 
there  were  in  the  civil  district  816,870  Hindus, 
75,649  Mohammedans,  and  "the  small  remain- 
der of  23  Christians"  (!). 

In  the  hired  house  in  the  city,  just  men- 
tioned, a  school  was  started,  attended  by  high- 
caste  non-Christians,  and  in  connection  with 
that  a  Sunday  school  was  held  every  Sunday 
morning,  with  a  preaching  service  in  the  even- 
ing. On  January  19,  as  has  been  before  stated, 
Dr.  Parker,  accompanied  by  Dr.  T.  J.  Scott, 
Mr.  J.  T.  McMahon,  and  the  writer,  met  in 
Mathura  to  select  a  site  for  a  mission  house. 


I02  Braj 

They  were  strangers  to  the  place  and  "went 
out  not  knowing  whither  they  went."  They 
walked  about  the  city,  and  finally  reached  an 
elevated  site  between  the  Sudder  Bazar  and 
the  city  on  one  of  the  main  roads,  and  at  once 
said  of  one  accord,  "This  is  the  place."  It 
was  the  place.  None  knew  to  whom  it  be- 
longed, or  if  it  was  available.  When  the  com- 
mittee departed  the  missionary  found  that  the 
desirable  site  belonged  to  a  bigoted  Chaube 
Brahman  living  in  the  holy  city  of  Mathura! 
It  was  not  likely  he  would  sell  his  ancestral 
property  to  a  Christian  missionary.  Nor  would 
he,  when  seen.  But  still  that  was  the  place. 
And,  evidently.  Providence  intended  it  to  be 
so,  for  at  the  next  interview  the  Chaube  agreed 
to  rent  the  land  on  a  perpetual  lease,  and  so  the 
best  site  in  the  city  limits  was  secured  forever. 
It  was  near  the  city,  adjoining  the  canton- 
ments, on  a  main  road,  well  elevated  and 
healthful.  On  this  was  commenced  the  first 
mission  house  in  March.  There  were  no  mis- 
sion funds  for  building,  but  Dr.  Parker  and 
the  writer  advanced  the  money,  application  was 
made  for  permission  to  build,  and  soon  the 
work  was  going  forward.  The  ground  plan 
was  drawn  on  the  fourteenth  of  February, 
the  work  was  commenced  on  the  twenty-ninth 


The  Mission  103 

of  March,  and  completed  by  the  first  of  Janu- 
ary, 1899,  the  missionaries  taking  their  first 
meal  in  it  on  the  twenty-fourth,  and  sleeping 
in  it  for  the  first  time  on  the  twenty-sixth  of 
January. 

3.  Providential  Help,  From  the  first  to  the 
eighth  of  March,  1888,  occurred  the  great 
Brahmotsav  mela,  or  Krishna  car  festival,  at 
Brindaban.  About  thirty  missionaries  of  vari- 
ous missions,  and  more  than  a  hundred  native 
preachers  and  Bible  readers,  met  for  the  pur- 
pose of  working  in  this  mela.  The  old  house, 
Ganga  Mohan  Kunj,  referred  to  in  the  account 
of  Brindaban,  and  put  at  their  disposal  by  the 
Bharatpur  council,  was  occupied  as  head- 
quarters, and  bands  of  workers  preached  daily 
for  six  or  eight  hours  in  the  mela,  showing 
the  magic  lantern  at  night  to  great  throngs  of 
people. 

The  Brindaban  mela  of  1888  is  memorable 
for  several  reasons.  A  decision  was  reached 
at  that  time  w^hich  greatly  affected  the  future 
of  the  Mathura  Mission.  Seated  around  a 
large  table  in  the  midst  of  this  great  mela,  in 
the  heart  of  this  Vaishnava  stronghold,  it  was 
decided  that  a  Deaconess  Home  and  Training 
School  be  established  at  Mathura ;  and  from 
there  a  letter  was  sent  by  Dr.  Parker  to  Mr. 


104  Braj 

W.  E.  Blackstone,  of  Oak  Park,  Chicago,  in- 
closing letters  from  other  missionaries,  urging 
that  such  an  institution,  which  he  had  under 
contemplation,  be  established  at  this  new  sta- 
tion of  Mathura.  Concerning  the  founding  of 
this  school  Mr.  Blackstone  subsequently  wrote 
to  the  writer  as  follows : 

"The  attention  of  myself  and  friends  was 
first  directed  to  Mathura  in  the  following  man- 
ner: We  were  seeking  for  some  good  invest- 
ment in  India.  My  parents  had  died,  and  I 
wished  to  erect  a  living  memorial  for  them. 
On  conferring  with  the  ladies  of  the  Woman's 
Foreign  Missionary  Society  I  learned  that  they 
were  placing  much  stress  upon  a  Home  for 
Medical  Students  at  Agra,  and  I  first  thought 
of  building  a  Deaconess  Home  there.  But,  in 
some  way,  provision  for  this  seemed  to  have 
been  made,  and  Mathura  was  suggested  in- 
stead. So  I  decided  to  locate  the  Deaconess 
Home  and  Training  School  there.  I  was  in 
New  York  at  the  time.  May,  1888,  on  my  way 
to  the  General  Missionary  Conference  in  Lon- 
don, England,  when  I  had  a  conference  with 
several  of  the  officers  of  the  Woman's  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  at  Mrs.  Skidmore's  house 
in  New  York;  and  then,  after  carefully  con- 
sidering the  matter,  I  gave  them  a  check  for 


The  Mission  105 

three  thousand  dollars  to  build  a  Home.  Miss 
Fannie  Sparks,  under  whose  supervision  the 
Home  was  established,  afterward  petitioned 
me  for  the  addition  of  native  quarters,  etc., 
and  we  furnished  two  thousand  dollars  more." 
Word  came  to  the  writer  through  Dr. 
Parker  on  the  seventeenth  of  June,  1889,  that 
the  Home  was  to  be  built,  and  on  the  eleventh 
of  July  a  committee,  consisting  of  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  Parker,  Misses  English,  Blackmar,  Dr. 
Christiancy,  and  the  resident  missionaries,  met 
to  select  a  suitable  site  for  the  new  buildings. 
It  was  decided  that  the  very  best  site  was  the 
land  adjoining  that  of  the  General  Missionary 
Society,  and  owned  by  the  same  Chaube  Brah- 
man. But  when  approached  he  emphatically 
refused  to  sell  or  rent,  saying  that  it  belonged 
to  his  grandson,  who  was  a  minor,  and  the 
land  could  not  be  diverted.  Moreover,  he 
avowed  his  purpose  to  build  a  shrine  thereon, 
and  in  proof  thereof  commenced  to  lay  out 
a  garden.  But  in  a  few  days,  on  the  first  of 
November,  he  changed  his  mind  and  consented 
suddenly  to  rent  the  land  on  the  same  terms  as 
before.  He  was  hurried  to  the  registrar's 
office  before  he  could  change  his  mind  again, 
the  deed  was  written  and  registered,  and  the 
site  was  secured  forever.     The  ground  plan 


io6  Braj 

of  the  building  was  drawn  on  the  second  of 
November,  1888,  and  on  the  twenty-fifth  of 
March,  1889,  the  memorial  corner  stone  was 
laid  by  Dr.  Parker  in  the  presence  of  a  number 
of  missionaries. 

Besides  these  mission  houses  some  spiritual 
temples  were  built  the  first  year.  The  first 
service  was  held  in  the  city  of  Mathura  on  the 
twelfth  of  February,  and  the  first  English 
service  with  the  troops  in  the  cantonments  took 
place  in  the  regimental  schoolroom  on  the 
eighth  of  April,  and  on  the  seventeenth  of 
April  a  Rajput  widow  was  baptized  in  Brinda- 
ban.  Since  the  work  commenced  to  spread 
into  the  district,  old  William  Plomer  was  sent 
on  an  evangelistic  tour  to  Hathras,  twenty- 
four  miles  distant,  on  the  Cawnpur  and  Achy- 
nera  Railway,  and  was  told  not  to  return  until 
he  had  some  converts.  He  returned  in  about 
a  week  with  the  welcome  news  that  eight  per- 
sons had  been  baptized  and  that  there  were 
other  inquirers  under  instruction.  In  the  mean- 
time the  school  for  boys  prospered  in  the  city, 
zenana  work  was  opened  among  the  high-caste 
women,  and  several  girls'  schools  were  started. 
On  the  twenty  fifth  of  March,  1890,  two  young 
Bengali  widows  from  Brindaban  were  baptized 
in  the  mission  house  drawing-room  at  Mathura. 


The  Mission  107 

4.  Hopeful  Outlook.  Thus  the  first  year 
closed,  and  the  second  opened  with  much  en- 
couragement. Sites  had  been  secured  for  both 
societies,  the  parsonage  was  completed  and 
occupied,  the  Deaconess  Home  and  Training 
School  commenced,  schools  had  been  opened 
in  the  city,  a  service  commenced  for  British 
troops  in  the  cantonments,  and,  best  of  all, 
there  had  been  about  a  dozen  converts  and 
there  were  a  number  of  inquirers  in  the  sur- 
rounding towns  and  villages. 


io8  Br  A  J 


II 

The  Evolution  of  a  Mission 

I.  Expansion.  At  the  end  of  1890  there  were 
eight  preachers,  four  Christian  teachers,  and 
several  Bible  readers  at  work  on  the  Mathura 
Circuit.  There  had  been  more  than  one  hun- 
dred converts,  and  the  inquirers  under  in- 
struction had  greatly  multiplied.  The  Dea- 
coness Home  was  completed,  and  a  church 
for  the  soldiers  also^  the  first  service  in  which 
was  held  the  sixth  of  April,  and  a  reading  and 
prayer  room  was  completed.  On  the  tenth 
of  March  the  missionaries  were  able  to  go  to 
the  Brindaban  mela  by  train,  and  for  a  week 
more  than  a  hundred  workers  preached  to 
great  multitudes  of  people.  But  the  first  for- 
ward movement  was  made  at  Hathras  at  the 
beginning  of  the  cold  season  of  1889  (Octo- 
ber 7-9),  when  a  camp  meeting,  the  first  of  a 
series  held  there  annually,  took  place.  A  large 
tent  was  pitched  near  the  city,  and  several 
meetings  were  held  daily,  with  the  magic  lan- 
tern at  night.  The  attendance  of  non-Chris- 
tians was  large,  and  about  fifty  Christians,  the 
majority  of  whom  were  from  the  schools  at 


The  Mission  109 

Mathura,  were  present.  A  Hindu  priest  had 
been  baptized  at  Mathura  a  few  weeks  before, 
and  his  presence  and  addresses  attracted  con- 
siderable attention  and  stirred  up  some  resent- 
ment. During  this  mela  the  writer  was  called 
one  night  to  baptize  some  converts  in  the  city. 
He  found  thirteen  very  poor  and  almost  en- 
tirely unclad  children  gathered  in  the  midst  of 
a  company  of  adults  in  a  sweeper  ward.  They 
had  been  under  the  tuition  of  Ummed  Singh, 
the  preacher  stationed  there,  and  were  the 
first  fruits  of  a  large  multitude  who  have  fol- 
lowed. When  the  missionary  returned  to  the 
tent,  in  which  he  had  left  a  large  congrega- 
tion looking  at  magic  lantern  pictures  shown 
by  Dr.  Parker,  he  found  that  some  of  "the 
baser  sort"  had  untied  the  ropes  and  threatened 
to  throw  the  tent  down  upon  the  people.  Of 
course  this  broke  up  the  meeting,  and  the 
Christians  hurried  away  to  the  town  hall. 

Gradually  there  grew  up  around  Mathura 
eight  large  circuits.  The  first  among  these 
were  Hathras,  Mahaban,  Bharatpur,  and  Brin- 
daban,  and  as  the  years  went  by  almost  every 
important  village  within  a  radius  of  twenty- 
five  miles  had  the  gospel  preached  in  it,  and 
many  of  them  contained  converts  and  inquirers 
under  instruction.     It  is  true  the  majority  of 


no  Bra  J 

these  converts  were  from  the  sweeper  caste, 
but  this  did  not  prevent  or  hinder  work  being 
done  among  all  castes,  and  perhaps  there  were 
as  many  converts  from  the  higher  castes  dur- 
ing those  years  as  there  would  have  been  had 
the  work  been  entirely  confined  to  them.  In 
1890  the  editor  of  the  Kankab  i  Hind  wrote : 
"The  work  at  Mathura  is  worthy  of  careful 
attention.  This  is  the  third  year  there,  and 
in  this  time  the  missionary  has  built  an  excel- 
lent mission  house  and  a  Deaconess  Home 
with  Training  School,  and  has  put  up  a  sub- 
stantial chapel  costing  four  thousand  rupees. 
This  chapel  was  designed  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  needs  of  the  soldiers,  but  the  Hin- 
dustani congregation  also  meets  there  Tuesday 
afternoon.  Mrs.  Scott  attends  to  the  pastoral 
work  of  the  English  congregation,  and  some 
twenty  men  have  begun  the  Christian  life  this 
year.  The  missionary  preaches  in  Hindustani 
every  Sunday  evening  in  his  city  schoolroom, 
and  he  is  planning  for  a  large  increase  in  the 
proclamation  of  the  gospel.  He  has  several 
outstations  which  are  quite  fruitful,  notably 
Hathras  and  Sikandra  Rao ;  in  these  two  towns 
there  are  nearly  two  hundred  Christians,  most 
of  whom  have  been  baptized  within  twelve 
months."    During  eleven  months  in  1890  there 


The  Mission  hi 

were  14  baptisms  at  Mathura,  22  at  Sikandra 
Rao,  and  73  at  Hathras. 

In  1893  the  editor  of  the  Kankab  i  Hind 
again  called  attention  to  the  work  as  follows: 
"The  Mathura  work  is  worthy  of  study.  The 
city  and  outlying  civil  district  are  well  occu- 
pied. Circuits  have  been  organized  in  each  of 
the  five  tahsils  (townships),  and  hundreds  of 
converts  have  been  gained  in  the  past  five 
years.  In  the  center  of  the  city  an  eligible 
building  site  was  purchased  for  five  thousand 
rupees,  and  now  a  large  building,  costing 
eighteen  thousand  rupees,  is  being  erected. 
This  will  contain  an  Anglo- Vernacular  School, 
an  audience  room  capable  of  seating  five  hun- 
dred persons,  and  book  room,  reading  room, 
and  office.  Two  services  are  held  each  Sunday 
in  the  city,  one  in  the  morning  for  children 
and  one  in  the  evening  for  non-Christians.  It 
is  not  an  easy  thing  to  gather  and  hold  con- 
tinuously a  non-Christian  congregation.  It 
requires  great  tact  and  excellent  preaching 
ability." 

By  January,  1891,  the  eleven  Christians  of 
Hathras  had  grown  to  a  community  of  one 
hundred  and  thirty.  The  parents  of  the  chil- 
dren had  become  Christians.  One  man,  Lai 
Masih,  and  his  wife,  Pulmani,  became  teachers 


112  BrAJ 

and  were  the  means  of  influencing  hundreds 
to  forsake  their  idols  and  turn  to  God.  About 
thirty  Christian  and  Chumar  (leather- worker) 
boys  were  in  the  school  which  met  in  the 
chapel  which  had  been  built,  and  were  under 
the  tuition  of  two  Christian  teachers.  Those 
were  the  days  of  active  aggressive  work;  of 
long  tours  from  village  to  village;  of  rides 
across  country  in  uncomfortable  ekkas  without 
springs ;  of  sleeping  under  trees  and  in  native 
huts ;  of  eating  unwholesome  native  food  and 
drinking  unfiltered  water.  But  they  were  the 
days  of  opening  new  work,  of  finding  and 
training  inquirers,  of  baptizing  and  organizing 
converts.  Workers  and  teachers  had  to  be 
sought  out  and  trained.  But  the  gospel  is  self- 
propagative.  As  such  converts  are  made  they 
themselves  spontaneously  turn  into  earnest, 
successful  workers,  uneducated  and  often  very 
inexperienced,  it  is  true,  but  simple-hearted, 
teachable,  and  familiar  with  the  people  among 
whom  they  live.  In  those  days  the  missionary 
wrote  in  his  diary:  "Several  months  ago  I 
went  to  Gobardhana,  thirteen  miles  from  Ma- 
thura,  and  baptized  a  bairagi  (mendicant 
priest)  and  some  of  his  disciples.  The  man 
was  unkempt,  and  was  loaded  down  with  ro- 
saries, charms,  and  amulets.    With  baptism  he 


The  Mission  113 

discarded  them.  He  organized  his  followers 
into  a  Christian  school,  and  took  the  room 
in  which  they  were  baptized  as  a  schoolroom. 
Soon  he  became  restless  for  more  aggressive 
work  and  hurried  away  to  his  old  disciples  at 
Digg,  in  Bharatpur  territory.  It  was  not 
long  until  he  had  numerous  inquirers  under 
training  and  wrote  for  some  one  to  come  and 
baptize  them.  Then  he  was  off  to  Bharatpur 
itself,  and  the  same  thing  was  repeated.  In  all 
about  one  hundred  converts  were  made  by  this 
one  man  in  a  few  months." 

Lai  Masih,  previously  mentioned,  is  another 
example  of  the  same  class  of  worker  raised  up 
and  set  to  work.  He  is  of  the  sweeper  caste, 
and  early  came  under  the  influence  of  the  gos- 
pel at  Hathras.  He  was  a  good  singer,  could 
read  and  write,  and  soon  became  familiar  with 
the  New  Testament.  His  wife,  Pulmani,  was 
in  every  way  his  equal.  He  sent  her  to  the 
Training  School  at  Mathura,  and  then  both  of 
them  were  sent  out  into  the  work.  Old  Braj 
Lai  is  another  case.  The  man  could  neither 
read  nor  write.  But  he  could  sing  and  could 
compose  simple  hymns  in  praise  of  Christ.  He 
had  great  influence  in  the  community  in  which 
he  lived,  and  he  would  often  spend  hours  sing- 
ing to  the  people,  accompanying  the  singing 


114  Braj 

with  his  primitive  violin.  He  brought  several 
hundreds  of  his  class  to  believe  in  Christ.  In 
his  annual  report  for  1892  the  missionary  wrote 
as  follows: 

"The  presiding  officer  of  the  Agra  District, 
living  on  his  district  and  in  the  midst  of  the 
work  all  the  year  round  and  year  after  year, 
and  being  constantly  on  the  move  among  the 
people,  is  pretty  familiar  with  the  details  of 
the  work,  with  all  the  excellences  and  most  of 
the  defects  to  be  found  in  it.  He  is  not  dis- 
posed to  boast  of  those  or  suppress  these.  As 
is  well  known,  many  of  the  people  are  very, 
very  poor.  They  live  from  hand  to  mouth, 
with  but  little  in  the  hand.  They  are  exceed- 
ingly illiterate.  With  the  exception  of  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  mission  employees  and 
several  hundred  students,  the  great  mass  are 
unable  to  read  or  write.  It  cannot  be  expected 
that  a  people  oppressed  and  depressed  for 
centuries  will  burst  out  into  brilliancy  all  at 
once.  And  yet,  certainly,  a  marvelous  change 
is  taking  place  among  these  people,  who  have 
put  themselves  under  our  tutelage.  It  is  with 
profound  gratitude  that  this  change  wrought 
by  grace  in  the  hearts  of  these  humble  villagers 
is  noted.  Success  after  toil  always  brings  joy, 
and  in  this  work  it  is  only  toil  that  can  bring 


The  Mission  115 

success.  The  heart  that  never  feels  the  burden 
of  work  and  worry  is  scarcely  susceptible  of 
the  highest  joy.  Has  not  the  weeping  in  the 
night  something  to  do  with  the  sweetness  of 
joy  in  the  morning?  There  is  profound  phi- 
losophy in  the  declaration  that  *he  that  goeth 
forth  and  weepeth,  bearing  precious  seed,  shall 
doubtless  come  again  with  rejoicing,  bringing 
his  sheaves  with  him'  (Psa.  126.  6). 

"Come  with  me  to  Dauji  and  hear  the  people 
pray ;  to  Hathras  and  hear  them  sing ;  to  Bhar- 
atpur  and  hear  them  testify !  Notice  the  simple 
faith  of  the  blind  man  at  Aligarh  who  prayed 
all  night  for  some  one  to  lead  him  to  the 
Hathras  camp  meeting,  and  got  his  answer  in 
the  morning,  when  a  stranger,  a  non-Christian 
lad,  came  to  him  and  offered  to  conduct  him. 
^Baptize  me!  Baptize  me!'  cried  the  villager 
in  the  early  morning,  before  it  was  yet  day, 
pleading  before  Mr.  Lawson's  tent — 'Baptize 
me,  or  the  devil  will  get  me !'  It  is  needless  to 
say  that  his  request  was  granted.  See  that  old 
man  from  Dauji  astride  of  his  knock-kneed 
pony,  with  rope  bridle  and  stirrups,  leaving 
the  camp  ground  for  home  with  the  blessing 
of  God  in  his  heart  and  the  solar  light  making 
his  wrinkled  face  look  beautiful.  Having  got 
out  of  the  grove  on  to  the  highway,  he  re- 


ii6  Bra J 

turns  to  say,  'God  has  blessed  me  in  this  meet- 
ing, and  now  I  am  going  home  to  tell  the  peo- 
ple, and  I  am  sure  many  of  them  will  get  what 
I  have  got/  Yonder  goes  old  Edward,  the 
sais,  the  tent-pitcher,  the  faithful  Christian 
worker,  trudging  from  village  to  village,  tak- 
ing his  wife  with  him,  mounted  on  a  pony, 
preaching  the  gospel  and  leading  scores  to  the 
Lord.  Such  men  as  these  make  mission  work 
a  delight  and  are  our  assurance  of  certain  and 
complete  victory." 

2.  Mathura  Institutions.  Mention  has  been 
made  of  how  Mr.  Blackstone  came  to  help 
Mathura.  He  and  his  family  and  friends  have 
from  the  beginning  helped  and  fostered  the 
work  in  this  great  center. 

(i)  The  Deaconess  Home.  Among  the  in- 
stitutions which  were  thus  founded  the  first 
was  the  already  mentioned  Deaconess  Home. 
It  was  opened  in  1889,  and  Miss  Fannie  Sparks 
was  the  first  superintendent,  with  Mrs.  Mat- 
thews as  an  associate.  While  the  new  Home 
was  being  completed  they  occupied  a  large 
house  in  the  European  quarters  of  the  station, 
called  the  civil  lines.  From  the  first  this  Home 
has  been  like  a  "city  set  upon  a  hill."  Since 
1889  there  have  been  five  superintendents, 
namely.  Miss  Sparks,  1889-90;  Miss  Sheldon, 


The  Mission  117 

M.D.,  1891-92;  Mrs.  Matthews,  1893-96;  Miss 
Sullivan,  1897-99;  and  Miss  Gregg,  who  is 
the  present  incumbent.  These  deaconesses  and 
their  associates  have  not  only  prosecuted  the 
particular  work  pertaining  to  their  office,  but 
have  managed  schools,  and  have  done  the 
work  of  evangelists,  and  have  itinerated  in 
the  villages,  and  have  entered  heartily  into 
almost  every  form  of  missionary  work,  edu- 
cational, evangelistic,  medical,  industrial,  and 
whatsoever  their  hands  have  found  to  do  they 
have  done  it  with  their  might.  As  has  been 
said,  this  Home  had  placed  in  the  wall  on 
the  twenty-eight  of  March,  1899,  a  memorial 
stone.  On  that  stone  is  the  following  inscrip- 
tion: "Training  School  and  Deaconess  Home. 
A  Memorial  to  Andrew  Blackstone,  and  Sarah 
his  Wife,  of  Adams,  New  York.  Erected  by 
their  Son,  W.  E.  Blackstone,  Chicago,  Ills., 
U.  S.  A.,  March  28th,  1899." 

(2)  The  Training  School.  As  the  inscrip- 
tion quoted  above  indicates,  the  institution  is 
not  only  a  Deaconess  Home  but  a  Training 
School  as  well.  Mr.  Blackstone's  idea  in 
founding  the  Mathura  Training  School  was 
to  have  in  India  a  school  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible like  the  Training  School  in  Chicago  in 
which  he  had  taken  an  interest  and  which  had 


ii8  Braj 

proved  to  be  so  successful.  It  was  to  give 
practical  training  to  European  and  native 
young  women,  fitting  them  for  mission  work. 
"This  institution  was  established,"  writes  the 
lady  principal,  ''to  stimulate  and  give  facilities 
for  the  study  of  the  Bible,  to  increase  the 
number  and  efficiency  of  Christian  workers, 
and  to  utilize  the  undirected  or  misdirected 
energies  of  Christian  women  in  active  service." 
From  the  beginning  it  had  two  departments, 
one  for  English  students,  who  must  be  over 
sixteen  years  of  age,  of  approved  Christian 
character,  and  in  good  health,  and  the  other  a 
Vernacular  Department,  in  which  the  full 
course  is  given  in  the  language  of  the  candi- 
date. Five  students  graduated  from  the  school 
in  1 89 1,  four  in  1892,  two  in  1893,  one  in  1894, 
five  in  1895,  nine  in  1898,  and  four  in  1900. 
The  following  is  an  extract  from  the  first  prin- 
cipal's second  report,  in  1890.  Miss  Sparks 
writes :  "The  number  of  students,  considering 
that  it  is  a  new  work,  has  been  large,  and  prom- 
ises well  for  the  future,  we  think.  During  the 
two  years  twenty-two  different  students  have 
been  in  the  school,  six  English  and  sixteen 
natives,  these  representing  fourteen  different 
stations.  Some  were  married  and  came  with 
their  families,  others  unmarried,  and  others, 


The  Mission  119 

again,  widows.  The  number  this  year  has  been 
twelve.  The  yearly  examinations  took  place 
in  November,  the  students  acquitting  them- 
selves well.  Those  who  had  remained  the 
entire  year  completed  the  course  of  study, 
which,  in  addition  to  a  curriculum  about  equal 
to  that  of  the  Training  School  in  Chicago, 
embraces  also  the  first  year's  Missionary  and 
Bible  Readers'  Course  of  Study  in  Urdu, 
Hindi,  and  Bengali.  Some  have  taken  the 
three  languages.  The  students  have  been 
thoroughly  drilled  in  methods  of  work  and  in 
practical  teaching  and  zenana  visiting.  One 
thousand  three  hundred  and  eighty-five  zenana 
visits  have  been  made  by  the  students  during 
the  past  year.  They  have  also  had  special  op- 
portunities for  participating  in  mela,  temple, 
and  ghat  work,  Mathura  and  Brindaban  being 
noted  Hindu  shrines  affording  opportunities 
for  a  variety  of  practical  training  which  could 
hardly  be  had  elsewhere." 

The  editor  of  the  India  Witness  recently 
wrote  this  of  the  school :  "Time  and  space  fail 
us  to  note  at  length  the  Training  School  in 
Mathura,  in  which  European  and  Indian 
young  women  are  being  trained  for  mission 
service.  Under  the  efficient  superintendence 
of  Miss  Gregg  the  school  is  enlarging  its  bor- 


120  Br A J 

ders  and  taking  on  strength.  A  function  of 
the  visit  to  which  we  refer  was  the  laying  of 
the  foundation  stone  by  Bishop  Wame  of  a 
building  for  the  accommodation  of  one  of  the 
departments  of  the  Training  School,  this  new 
building  also  being  a  gift  of  Mr.  Blackstone. 
We  have  no  doubt  that  this  institution  has  a 
future  of  great  usefulness  before  it,  although 
the  largest  success  is  not  likely  to  be  attained  in 
a  year  or  two." 

(3)  Flora  Hall.  Another  Mathura  institu- 
tion is  Flora  Hall,  standing  in  the  very  heart 
of  the  city.  The  principle  upon  which  the  site 
for  Flora  Hall — in  fact,  for  all  the  Mathura 
buildings — was  selected  was  to  get  the  very 
best  available.  In  this  case  the  writer  went  into 
the  city,  selected  the  most  eligible  site,  and  then 
sought  out  the  owner  with  a  view  to  purchas- 
ing it.  In  1888  a  small  house  was  rented  back 
of  Naya  Bazar,  adjoining  a  mosque  and  near 
the  Dwaraka-Dhis  temple,  in  which  a  school 
was  opened.  This  was  the  mission  headquar- 
ters in  the  city.  Just  in  front  of  that  were 
some  old  buildings  fallen  into  ruin  used  as 
residences.  When  Bishop  Fowler  visited  Ma- 
thura, on  the  twenty-eighth  of  January,  1889, 
in  company  with  Dr.  Parker,  and  attended  a 
magic  lantern  exhibition  in  the  schoolhouse 


DHVAJA   STAMBHA,   BRINDABAN 

(A    golden    pillar    in    the    Seth's    Temple,    sixty    feet    high 

marking   the   location   of   the    idol  Krishna.) 


The  Mission  121 

he  was  struck  with  the  need  of  a  house  in  the 
city  and  urged  upon  the  writer  the  expediency 
of  getting  the  very  best  place.  This  was  the 
best  place.  The  owner  was  a  young  Moham- 
medan, Hamed  AH,  of  an  old  and  respectable 
but  greatly  reduced  family,  a  student  in  Agra 
College,  who  very  much  needed  money.  It 
was  mortgaged  to  a  Brahman  who  was  glad 
to  get  his  money.  The  site  consisted  of  two 
parts  divided  by  a  narrow  street  connecting 
two  parallel  streets  in  front  and  rear.  When 
Dr.  Parker  ceased  to  be  presiding  elder,  at  the 
end  of  1899,  he  was  succeeded  by  Rev.  C.  L. 
Bare.  Upon  the  tenth  of  October,  1890,  he 
wrote  to  the  writer  as  follows:  "Dr.  Parker 
and  I  have  talked  over  your  new  site  in  Ma- 
thura.  We  must  have  it  somehow.  We  would 
better  take  both  buildings  and  land  on  both 
sides  of  the  alley  leading  up  to  your  present 
rented  school  building.  It  would  be  better  to 
buy  instead  of  rent^  and  then  we  could  hold 
our  own  in  case  anyone  wished  to  oust  us.  I 
feel  confident  we  can  get  our  estimates  through 
Finance  Committee  next  year.  But  how  can 
we  buy  now  without  money?  Could  you  buy 
making  a  payment  down  of,  say,  one  thousand 
rupees,  the  rest  payable  in  installments,  or, 
what  is  better,  the  whole  payable  on  the  first 


122  BrAJ 

of  February,  1892?  You  could  borrow  one 
thousand  rupees  at  six  per  cent.  I  believe  this 
is  best." 

This  was  good  advice,  and  in  accordance 
with  it  the  whole  site  was  purchased  on  the 
second  of  January,  1891,  for  five  thousand 
rupees,  one  thousand  paid  down,  and  the  bal- 
ance after  a  year.  On  the  twenty-sixth  of 
January,  1891,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Evans,  who 
had  been  the  Baptist  missionary  in  Mathura 
in  1857,  and  whose  house  had  been  burned 
down  by  the  mutineers,  he  escaping  with  his 
family  to  the  Agra  Fort,  wrote  as  follows: 
"It  seems  to  me  something  like  a  miracle  that 
you  should  be  able  to  secure  a  building  site 
for  a  Christian  church  in  the  very  center  of 
the  Hindu  conservative  and  sacred  city  of 
Mathura.  You  have  indeed  stolen  a  march 
on  the  bigoted  Brahman  Chaubes  of  Krishna's 
birthplace,  and  they  will  open  their  eyes  wide 
and  exclaim  in  horror,  'Ram!  Ram!'  when 
they  find  a  new  building  for  Christian  worship 
going  up  so  close  to  their  own  temples  and 
idols.  Considering  the  difficulty  of  buying 
any  site  in  the  sacred  city,  the  extent  of  the 
ground  you  have  got,  its  frontage  and  per- 
fectly central  position,  I  consider  that  you  have 
got  the   site   exceedingly   cheap,   and   I    feel 


The  Mission  123 

pretty  sure  that  as  soon  as  it  is  found  out  that 
a  place  of  Christian  worship  is  to  be  put  on 
the  site  you  will  be  offered  double  the  amount 
for  it.  All  I  can  say  is  that  I  am  exceedingly 
glad  that  in  the  center  of  the  heathen  city  in 
which  thirty-five  years  ago  I  began  my  mission 
work,  where  I  could  hardly  find  a  footing  on 
which  to  stand  to  preach  Christ,  you  have  now 
found  a  site  on  which  to  put  up  a  good  large 
building  to  the  honor  of  the  God  of  heaven. 
May  this  prove  but  the  beginning  of  still 
greater  success  in  the  storming  and  subjuga- 
tion of  this  stronghold  of  idol  worship,  to  the 
praise  of  the  living  God !" 

As  Mr.  Evans  surmised,  the  purchase  of 
such  a  site  for  such  a  purpose  was  looked 
upon  as  a  daring  enterprise.  A  missionary 
begged  of  the  writer  to  abandon  it.  An  officer 
in  high  position  under  government  considered 
it  fraught  with  danger.  The  Brahmans  of  the 
city  framed  a  petition  and  forwarded  it  to  the 
government,  setting  forth  that  the  land  had 
been  purchased  without  their  knowledge,  that 
the  erection  of  such  a  building  would  desecrate 
their  holy  city.  But  a  just  magistrate  referred 
them  to  the  presence  of  mosques  in  their  city, 
one  of  which  was  adjacent  to  the  site,  and 
showed  them  that  the  site  had  been  purchased 


124  Br  A  J 

in  the  open  market  and  that  it  was  not  done  in 
haste  or  without  their  knowledge.  Other  dif- 
ficulties arose  about  the  subway  over  which 
the  building  was  erected,  and  about  certain 
front  buildings  whose  cellars  extended  under 
one  corner  of  the  site,  but  with  patience  and 
fairness  all  these  matters  were  amicably  set- 
tled and  the  work  went  forward.  The  Mission 
Board  promptly  gave  five  thousand  dollars  to 
pay  for  the  site.  The  old  buildings  were 
cleared  away,  and  throughout  the  year  1891 
a  service  was  held  in  the  open  every  Sunday 
evening  attended  by  Christians  and  a  large 
number  of  outsiders.  While  earnestly  pray- 
ing for  funds  to  build  the  much-needed  house 
on  the  eligible  site  now  secured,  the  heart  of 
Mrs.  Adaline  M.  Smith,  of  Oak  Park,  Chi- 
cago, was  moved  to  build  the  house  in  memory 
of  her  granddaughter,  Flora  L.  Blackstone, 
daughter  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  W.  E.  Blackstone, 
a  young  lady  who  died  in  her  senior  year  at 
Oberlin  College,  while  preparing  to  be  a  mis- 
sionary. Under  date  of  the  twenty-eighth  of 
April,  1892,  she  wrote  as  follows:  "After 
prayerful  deliberation  I  have  concluded  to 
furnish  the  funds  to  build  the  church  or  hall, 
schoolroom,  etc.,  you  desire  to  put  up  in  Ma- 
thura,  as  soon  as  I  can  obtain  the  same.    My 


The  Mission  125 

granddaughter,  Flora  L.  Blackstone,  died  last 
month,  and  the  sorrow  has  been  very  heavy  on 
all  of  us.  She  would  have  been  twenty-four 
in  June,  and  was  to  graduate  from  Oberlin 
College  that  month.  She  seemed  eminently 
fitted  for  the  Master's  service,  and  the  sad  dis- 
pensation is  all  the  more  inexplicable.  I  desire 
to  make  this  building  a  memorial  to  her  and 
name  it  Flora  Hall,  or  some  such  name  as  you 
may  think  wise,  and  place  a  tablet  saying  that 
it  is  erected  to  the  memory  of  Flora  L.  Black- 
stone  by  her  grandmother,  Adaline  M.  Smith." 
On  the  fifth  of  June  she  sent  three  thousand 
dollars,  followed  on  the  twenty-first  of  the 
same  month  by  a  letter  inclosing  two  thousand 
dollars  more,  in  which  she  wrote :  "With  God's 
favor  I  have  been  able  to  sell  my  interest  in 
a  farm  near  Onarga,  Illinois,  and  thus  raise 
the  funds  for  this  building.  It  is  among  the 
last  of  my  earthly  possessions,  and  I  am  thank- 
ful that  I  live  to  see  it  well  invested  for  time 
and  eternity.  I  am  just  getting  about  the 
house  after  many  weeks  of  sickness.  I  am 
eighty  years  old  on  the  twentieth  of  April. 
God  has  been  very  good  to  give  me  so  many 
years.  I  hope  he  may  give  you  a  great  work 
of  grace  and  the  salvation  of  many  souls  in 
Mathura  and  Brindaban." 


126  Braj 

The  work  was  commenced  early  in  1893 
and  completed  the  same  year.  On  the  six- 
teenth of  May  Dr.  Parker  wrote  to  Mr.  W. 
E.  Blackstone  from  Lucknow  as  follows:        ^ 

"At  your  request  in  your  last  letter  I  last 
week  went  to  Mathura.  The  building  is  all 
that  you  stipulated,  i.  A  good  audience  room 
with  good  foundations  and  good  solid  walls 
and  no  rooms  above  it  to  make  it  top-heavy. 
It  is  the  first  floor  above  the  elevation  walls 
required  to  level  up  the  place  so  It  will  be 
airy  and  not  too  high.  The  foundations  go 
down  deep,  twenty-five  feet  in  places,  and  must 
stand.  2.  There  are  good  class  rooms.  These 
begin  a  little  lower  down,  and  hence  are  two 
stories,  and  will  compare  well  with  the  audi- 
ence room.  All  is  well  built  of  good  solid 
burned  brick  with  thick  walls.  The  plan  is 
very  much  like  what  we  talked  of  at  Oak  Park. 
While  in  Mathura  I  was  at  the  Deaconess 
Home  for  our  Epworth  League  meeting,  and 
saw  all  the  folks.  The  work  is  good.  They 
very  much  need  a  girls'  schoolhouse.  They 
are  very  much  crowded.  Their  dormitories 
are  leaking  badly,  and  I  had  two  hundred 
rupees  given  me  by  a  friend,  so  am  helping 
them  this  amount  toward  repairs.  If  you  find 
anyone  who  has  two  thousand  dollars  to  invest 


The  Mission  127 

get  it  for  that  Training  Home  schoolhouse, 
please.  Mathura  is  a  grand  place.  I  love 
Mathura." 

The  work  on  Flora  Hall  drew  near  to  com- 
pletion, but  it  was  found  that  it  would  cost 
more  than  the  original  estimates.  Mr.  Black- 
stone  wrote  under  date  of  July  13:  'It  is  very 
hard  times  here  now,  but  I  will  send  the 
remaining  thousand  dollars  for  deficiencies, 
furnishing,  etc.,  of  Flora  Hall  as  soon  as  I 
can  raise  it."  And  three  weeks  later,  on  the 
fourth  of  August,  he  wrote  again  as  follows: 
"Phil.  I.  2,  3.  God  is  good!  In  the  midst  of 
most  fearful  financial  times  he  has  enabled 
me  to  secure  the  one  thousand  dollars  to  send 
to  you.  First  I  had  only  three  hundred  and 
thirty  dollars,  but  the  next  day  I  was  again 
most  providentially  helped  to  get  the  balance. 
This  explains  why  there  are  two  drafts.  This 
is  to  be  applied  as  follows:  Five  hundred  and 
thirty-six  dollars  from  Adaline  M.  Smith  for 
balance  of  the  expense  of  building  Flora  Hall, 
and  four  hundred  and  thirty- four  dollars  from 
Mrs.  Blackstone  and  myself  to  apply  on  the 
furniture."  And  on  August  9 :  "My  wife  and 
I  have  questioned  much  what  we  should  do 
with  two  hundred  dollars  which  belonged  to 
our  darling  Flora.    She  went  so  suddenly  that 


128  Braj 

she  gave  no  directions  concerning  it.  O,  if 
we  could  only  know  what  would  please  her 
most,  how  thankful  we  should  be!  It  has 
seemed  to  us  that  she  is  greatly  interested  in 
the  work  at  Mathura,  and  her  lovely  spirit 
would  rejoice  in  the  thought  of  her  being  able 
to  call  the  people  to  the  place  of  worship  which 
bears  her  name.  So  we  have  about  concluded 
to  purchase  a  bell  with  the  two  hundred  dollars 
for  Flora  Hall."  This  was  done.  It  was  cast 
by  the  Meneely  Bell  Company,  Troy,  New 
York,  and  was  shipped  on  the  twentieth  of 
November,  1893,  and  arrived  early  in  1894. 
The  bell  has  cast  upon  it  the  following  verse 
of  Scripture:  "The  Spirit  and  the  bride  say. 
Come.  And  let  him  that  heareth  say,  Come." 
It  can  be  heard  for  several  miles,  and  is  rung 
thrice  daily  when  the  school  is  in  session,  and 
four  times  on  Sundays  for  services.  At  the 
end  of  the  audience  room  facing  the  platform 
is  a  black  Italian  marble  slab  mounted  in  a 
stone  frame  sunk  in  the  wall,  which  bears  the 
following  inscription  in  conch-shell  letters: 
"This  Building  is  erected  to  the  Memory  of 
Flora  L.  Blackstone,  through  the  munificence 
of  Her  Grandmother,  Adaline  M.  Smith,  of 
Oak  Park,  Chicago,  111.,  U.  S.  A." 

Flora  Hall  was  dedicated  by  Bishop  Tho- 


The  Mission  129 

burn  on  the  tenth  of  December,  1893.  There 
were  several  preparatory  assemblies  and  serv- 
ices. On  Friday,  the  eighth,  at  7:30  p.  m., 
there  was  a  platform  meeting  at  which  a  num- 
ber of  addresses  were  made.  On  Saturday, 
the  ninth,  at  8  A.  M.,  there  was  an  Epworth 
League  meeting,  and  at  4  :^o  p.  m.  a  memorial 
service  was  held  at  which  Bishop  Thoburn 
presided  and  the  memorial  inscription  was  un- 
veiled and  addresses  were  made.  On  Sunday, 
at  8 130  A.  M.,  there  w^as  a  young  people's  meet- 
ing, and  at  4:30  p.  m.  the  Hall  was  dedicated 
by  Bishop  Thoburn.  All  the  meetings  were 
crowded,  but  at  the  dedicatory  service  the  hall 
and  class  rooms  opening  into  it  were  packed, 
the  doors  and  windows  were  crowded,  and 
even  the  flathouse  tops  of  the  adjoining  houses 
were  covered.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Blackstone  sent 
their  daughter's  picture,  which  hangs  in  the 
Hall,  and  an  organ,  which  stands  on  the  plat- 
form, and  have  added  an  additional  room  to 
the  building.  On  June  21  Mr.  Blackstone 
wrote:  ''Your  letter  of  May  16  has  just  been 
received,  and  I  can  assure  you  it  was  read 
with  great  interest.  I  truly  believe  the  Lord 
himself  led  us  to  undertake  this  work  in  Ma- 
thura,  and  it  rejoices  my  heart  to  hear  how 
he  is  owning  and  blessing  it."    Since  the  dedi- 


I30  Braj 

cation  of  this  building  it  has  been  in  con- 
stant use.  It  has  been  received  kindly  by  the 
Brahmans  of  the  city,  who  now  see  that  it  is 
not  a  menace,  in  any  bad  sense,  to  the  holy 
city.  An  Anglo- Vernacular  School,  attended 
by  more  than  one  hundred  high-caste  Hindus 
and  Mohammedans,  is  held  during  the  week, 
Sunday  school  in  the  morning  and  preaching 
in  the  evening  on  the  Sabbath,  the  Christian 
girls  and  boys  from  the  school  marching 
quietly  down  through  the  city  to  the  Hall  both 
morning  and  evening,  which  in  itself  is  an 
object  lesson  to  the  people.  God  has  signally 
blessed  this  enterprise,  and  the  people  have 
come  to  look  upon  it  as  one  of  their  own  insti- 
tutions. In  1901  the  editor  of  the  Indian  Wit- 
ness visited  Mathura  and  wrote  about  Flora 
Hall  as  follows: 

''Mr.  Blackstone  has  identified  himself  with 
Mathura  in  a  remarkably  helpful  and  liberal 
way.  Through  his  generosity  and  that  of  his 
family  seven  or  eight  fine  buildings,  including 
Boys'  Boarding  School  and  new  dormitories, 
have  been  brought  into  existence  within  a  few 
years.  Among  these  is  the  commodious  'Flora 
Hair  in  the  very  heart  of  the  city,  surrounded 
by  temples  and  occupying  a  position  of  the 
highest  strategic  importance.     This  building 


The  Mission  131 

was  erected  as  a  memorial  to  Miss  Flora  Black- 
stone,  a  deceased  granddaughter  of  the  donor. 
Nothing  like  it,  we  think,  is  to  be  seen  in  India, 
wedged  in,  as  it  is,  among  temples  and  the 
pretentious  houses  of  wealthy  merchants. 
Prayer  and  faith  and  true  American  grit  se- 
cured the  splendid  site  after  a  long,  weary 
struggle  with  the  bigotry  and  intolerance  en- 
countered. Architecturally  the  site  was  made 
the  most  of  in  erecting  the  Hall.  Additions 
have  recently  been  made  to  the  main  building, 
these,  too,  at  Mr.  Blackstone's  expense,  so  that 
now,  as  a  central  place  of  worship,  also  afford- 
ing accommodation  for  school,  bookshop,  etc., 
it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  building  more 
completely  suitable  for  the  purpose  for  which 
it  was  erected.  It  stirs  the  heart  with  hope 
to  listen  to  the  silver-toned  bell  that  rings  out 
the  glad  summons  to  the  worship  of  the  true 
and  living  God  in  the  heart  of  the  city  given 
over  so  utterly  to  idolatry;  and  Dr.  Scott 
believes  that  it  should  be  rung  often  and  vig- 
orously, for  it  has  many  rivals  within  a  radius 
of  a  mile.  Day  by  day,  almost  hour  by  hour, 
it  sounds  forth  a  suggestive  reminder  to  the 
thousands  who  are  mad  upon  their  idols  that 
a  Christian  fort  has  been  erected  at  the  very 
heart  of  Hinduism,  which  is  to  be  a  center  of 


132  Braj 

light  and  holy  influence  to  the  generations 
following.  Here,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  and 
on  certain  week  days,  gather  large  congrega- 
tions of  Christian  people,  including  scores  of 
young  people  of  both  sexes,  pupils  in  the 
boarding  schools;  while  here  and  there  in  the 
body  of  the  large  hall,  or  filling  the  doorways, 
are  Hindus  who  come  to  see  and  hear  for 
themselves  what  the  Christians  are  doing  and 
saying. 

"On  one  of  the  days  of  our  visit  a  big  pro- 
cession composed  of  the  boys  and  girls  of  the 
schools,  preachers,  teachers,  and  Bible  women, 
the  members  of  the  Summer  School  then  in 
session,  and  visiting  missionaries  of  both  sexes, 
with  banners  flying,  and  Bishop  Warne  and 
Presiding  Elder  Scott  leading  on,  started  from 
the  mission  premises  and  marched  to  Flora 
Hall  through  the  well-flagged  streets  of  the 
city,  sweeping  past  numerous  temples  with  joy- 
ous Christian  song,  and  filling  the  hall  with  a 
cloud  of  witnesses  to  the  transforming  power 
of  the  gospel  of  Christ.  As  we  Hstened  to  the 
strains  of  the  well-known  Christian  battle 
hymn,  'Jai  Prabhu  Yisn,  Jai  Adhiraja'  'Vic- 
tory to  the  Lord  Jesus,'  we  could  see  by  faith 
the  glorious  day  when  Mathura  shall  be  as 
clean  swept  of  all  its  idolatry  as  was  the  idol- 


The  Mission  133 

atrous  Athens  of  Paul's  day  through  the  power 
of  the  gospel." 

(4)  Gracie  Hall.  The  next  enterprise  was 
Gracie  Hall.  When  Dr.  Parker  wrote  to  Mr. 
Blackstone  on  the  sixteenth  of  May,  1893, 
^They  very  much  need  a  girls'  schoolhouse. 
They  are  very  much  crowded.  If  you  find 
anyone  who  has  two  thousand  dollars  to  invest 
get  it  for  that  Training  Home  schoolhouse, 
please,"  he  addressed  a  sympathetic  listener 
in  a  worthy  cause.  The  house  was,  indeed, 
very  much  needed.  The  school  had  outgrown 
its  quarters  and  was  crowded  into  leaky  dor- 
mitories, and  had  to  study  and  recite  on  veran- 
das and  under  trees  and  in  the  overcrowded 
rooms  of  the  Deaconess  Home.  In  mission 
work,  as  in  everything  else  where  there  is  a 
real  need,  there  is,  somewhere,  a  supply  to 
meet  it.  Mathura  was  on  the  hearts  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Blackstone  and  their  venerable 
mother,  Mrs.  Smith.  On  the  third  of  Febru- 
ary, 1894,  he  wrote :  "Your  letter,  and  also  one 
from  Mrs.  Matthews  and  one  from  Miss 
Rowe,  and  the  plan  and  map  of  Mathura,  are 
all  received.  Times  are  very  hard  for  selling 
property  here,  and  I  suppose  you  know  that 
the  investments  our  dear  Mother  Smith  has 
been  making  are  from  the  disposition  of  her 


134  Braj 

property.  She  has  no  money,  and  my  wife  and 
I  must  raise  the  money  for  the  Mathura  build- 
ing, if  it  is  built,  taking  of  mother  two  vacant 
lots,  all  she  has  left,  except  one  lot  in  the  city 
and  her  homestead.  We  have  not  the  money 
at  command.  Must  sell  something,  but  we 
have  concluded  to  undertake  it.  I  think  we 
can  send  five  hundred  dollars  in  sixty  days  and 
the  rest  within  six  months  from  now.  If  you 
can  manage  it  go  ahead  on  this  basis.  I  think 
(D.  V.)  you  can  depend  on  receiving  the  two 
thousand  five  hundred  dollars  within  six 
months.  I  shall  leave  the  plan  of  the  building 
to  you,  taking  Brother  Parker's  advice,  if  you 
wish.  We  wish  the  building  to  be  called 
'Gracie  Hall/  in  memory  of  Mrs.  Smith's 
grandchild,  Gracie  Budlong,  who  died  in  in- 
fancy. Let  there  be  a  plain  tablet  as  per 
inclosed  slip.  May  the  Lord  bless  this  invest- 
ment; and  if  he  shall  tarry,  may  many  girls 
be  educated  and  converted  and  their  souls 
made  white  and  beautiful  in  this  building  to 
greet  her  whose  memory  it  keeps  green,  when 
we  all  meet  in  the  glory  land !"  In  the  front 
veranda,  under  the  tower,  in  black  letters  on 
white  marble,  is  placed  the  inscription  reading 
as  follows :  "Gracie  Hall.  To  the  memory  of 
Minnie    Grace    Budlong.      This    Building   is 


The  Mission  135 

erected    by    her    Grandmother,    AdaHne    M. 
Smith,  of  Oak  Park,  111.,  U.  S.  A.,  1894." 

(5)  Dormitories.  Under  date  of  August 
8  he  wrote :  ''Your  letter  of  July  3  is  received. 
If  you  wrote  in  the  evening  it  was  just  about 
the  time  our  dear  Mother  Smith  was  joining 
the  hosts  above.  Doubtless,  ere  this  reaches 
you,  you  will  have  received  the  paper  giving 
account  of  her  going.  It  was  triumphant. 
'One  by  one  the  saints  are  going.'  God  help 
us  to  do  our  duty  ere  our  sun  goes  down  or 
he  calls  us  to  meet  Jesus  in  the  air!"  He 
adds:  "By  God's  help  we  will  make  Mathura 
a  city  set  upon  a  hill.  The  bishop  is  with  us 
in  sympathy  and  effort.  Just  read  a  most  ap- 
proving letter  from  him.  A  letter  from  Mrs. 
Skidmore  gives  us  assurance  of  hearty  coop- 
eration and  sympathy.  So  it  appears  that  all 
is  accomplished,  or  will  be.  Therefore  you 
may  go  right  on  with  the  dormitories  and  extra 
room  on  Flora  Hall.  I  will  have  the  money 
ready  as  you  need  it  (D.  V.).  Can  send  a 
part,  or  perhaps  all,  by  the  time  I  hear  from 
you  again."  And  on  October  25 :  "I  hope 
you  are  getting  on  safely  and  well  with  'Gracie 
Hall.'  It  will  surely  add  much  to  the  facilities 
in  Mathura  for  gospel  work.  But  most  of  all 
I  hope  you  are  progressing  grandly  in  securing 


136  Br A J 

'living  stones'  for  the  spiritual  Taj  they  are 
building  in  the  heavens  for  the  habitation  of 
God  in  spirit.  O,  how  beautiful  those  Indian 
souls  will  be,  sanctified  and  cleansed  by  the 
'washing  of  the  water  of  the  Word.'  I  desire 
to  be  a  coworker  in  winning  thousands  of 
them,  and  how  I  shall  rejoice  when  Jesus  pre- 
sents them  to  himself  (Eph.  5.  2'j),  without 
spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such  thing,  but  holy 
and  without  blemish !  We  are  expecting  that 
many  will  be  won  in  and  about  Mathura." 
The  work  in  Mathura  prospered  beyond  the 
highest  expectations.  Mr.  Blackstone  pro- 
vided funds  for  dormitories  for  the  Christian 
boys  attending  the  city  school,  which  were 
built  in  1896  on  land  purchased  from  the  Bha- 
ratpur  state  in  1893. 

(6)  Smith  Hall.  The  Deaconess  Home  soon 
became  too  small,  and  in  1897,  through  the  lib- 
erality of  Mr.  Blackstone,  it  was  enlarged. 
But  again  it  became  too  small,  and  it  became 
necessary  that  Gracie  Hall  be  enlarged,  and 
that  a  new  hall,  to  include  class  rooms  and 
dormitories  for  the  English  Department  of  the 
Training  School,  be  built.  When  Mr.  Black- 
stone was  communicated  with  and  was  told 
that  this  enlargement  was  due  to  the  success 
of  the  mission  he  at  once  made  sympathetic 


The  Mission  137 

response.  He  hoped  that  he  could  get  the 
money,  and  authorized  the  additions  contem- 
plated. But  he  failed  to  get  the  money  from 
the  person  from  whom  he  had  hoped  to  receive 
it,  and  rather  than  disappoint  the  missionaries 
he  drew  upon  his  own  reserve  fund,  signing 
the  check  upon  Thanksgiving  Day,  1900.  This 
needy  work  was,  therefore,  taken  in  hand  in 
1900,  and  Gracie  Hall  was  enlarged.  New 
dormitories  were  added,  and  a  new  hall,  to  be 
called  Smith  Hall,  was  commenced. 

On  the  eighth  of  August,  1901,  the  corner 
stone  of  Smith  Hall  was  laid  by  Bishop  Warne. 
A  large  company  gathered  in  the  early  morn- 
ing under  the  shade  of  a  tree  in  front  of  the 
building,  a  hymn  was  sung,  prayer  offered,  an 
address  giving  an  account  of  the  providential 
development  of  the  work  in  Mathura  delivered, 
and  the  stone  was  with  appropriate  ceremony 
*Vell  and  truly  laid."  On  Februar}^  15,  1902, 
the  completed  building  was  dedicated  to  the 
use  of  the  English  Department  of  the  Mathura 
Training  School. 

3.  English  Work.  A  word  must  be  said 
about  the  English  work  of  the  Mathura  Mis- 
sion. When  the  writer  went  to  Mathura  in 
1888  he  found  a  British  cavalry  regiment  quar- 
tered there  in  which  were  a  large  number  of 


138  Bra J 

nonconformists  for  whom  no  religious  services 
were  provided.  Besides  these  there  were  the 
missionaries  and  EngHsh  students  to  be  min- 
istered to.  It  was  therefore  desirable  to  open 
an  English  service.  There  was  no  church  in 
which  this  service  could  be  held.  With  the 
permission  of  the  commanding  officer  the  regi- 
mental schoolroom  was  put  at  his  disposal,  and 
during  the  first  two  years  this  was  used.  But 
it  was  apparent  that  a  church  was  needed, 
and  an  application  was  made  for  land  in  the 
cantonment  on  which  to  build,  which  was  at 
first  refused,  but  subsequently,  as  in  every 
other  enterprise,  the  very  best  site  in  the  place 
was  given  rent  free,  and  on  that  a  church  and 
prayer  room  costing  four  thousand  rupees  was 
built  from  private  funds.  The  first  service, 
which  was  dedicatory,  was  held  on  the  sixth 
of  April  and  the  prayer  room  was  opened  on 
the  thirteenth. 

This  cantonment  church  and  prayer  room 
have  been  a  great  help  in  the  work.  The 
prayer  room,  especially,  has  been  a  center  in 
which  the  better-disposed  men  of  the  various 
regiments  which  have  successively  occupied 
the  Mathura  cantonments  could  meet,  and,  as 
a  coffee  shop  and  reading  room  were  also 
connected  with  it,  they  could  spend  a  profitable 


The  Mission  139 

hour  when  off  duty.  In  it  meetings  have  been 
held  daily,  while  in  the  larger  room  a  parade 
service  is  held  on  Sunday  mornings  and  a  vol- 
untary service  on  Sunday  and  Wednesday 
evenings.  There  is  no  doubt  that  such  Eng- 
lish work  is  helpful  to  the  general  missionary 
work  in  India.  The  natives  see  the  differ- 
ence between  the  real  and  the  nominal 
Christian.  Often  soldiers  in  India  become 
interested  in  mission  work  and  help  to  sup- 
port it,  while  the  help  to  them  personally  is 
incalculable. 

4.  Medical  Work  has  been  carried  on  in  the 
Mathura  Mission  almost  from  the  beginning. 
Miss  Dr.  McDowell  opened  the  work  in  1889, 
and  had  a  dispensary  in  the  city  which  was 
well  attended.  In  1891,  when  Dr.  McDowell 
was  called  away  to  Bareilly,  Miss  Dr.  Sheldon 
continued  the  good  work.  Concerning  this 
she  wrote :  ''With  longer  hours  the  attendance 
at  the  dispensary  has  been  increasing  steadily. 
Once  a  week  medical  work  is  carried  on  in 
Brindaban.  One  little  woman  and  her  daugh- 
ter of  high  caste,  who  were  for  some  time  pa- 
tients in  the  hospital,  now  come  regularly  to 
our  school,  and  have  a  great  thirst  for  knowl- 
edge. They  seem  Christians  at  heart,  have 
given  up  the  worship  of  idols,  and  pray  to  God 


140  Braj 

in  Christ's  name."  Much  medical  work  has 
been  done  among  the  Christians  in  Mathura 
and  in  the  district  of  which  we  have  no  writ- 
ten record.  But  the  permanent  work  has  been 
carried  on  from  Brindaban  as  a  center.  This 
bigoted  place  has  been  opened  to  the  mission 
in  a  wonderful  way.  Mohammedans  are  rele- 
gated to  the  suburbs,  and  the  Brahmans  deter- 
mined that  neither  Mohammedans  nor  Chris- 
tians should  own  property  within  the  sacred 
limits.  Its  thousand  temples  and  multitude  of 
priests  stood  guard  over  this  Holy  Land  of 
Krishna.  But  in  1889  Miss  Fannie  Sparks, 
the  first  superintendent  of  the  Training  School 
at  Mathura,  who  had  received  funds  for 
that  purpose  from  friends  at  Ocean  Grove, 
purchased  from  a  Brahman  widow,  Champi, 
a  most  desirable  site  near  the  large  temples 
and  close  to  the  railway  station.  For  this  she 
paid  eleven  hundred  rupees,  and  found  that  it 
had  been  mortgaged  to  a  trustee  of  the  Go- 
bind  Deva  temple  for  almost  the  full  amount. 
This  was  paid  and  a  deed  was  written  and  reg- 
istered, possession  given,  and  a  mission  house 
commenced.  But  immediately  a  counter 
claimant  appeared,  the  Brahmans  rallied  to 
his  support,  and  Htigation  was  commenced 
which  continued  for  several  years.    The  prop- 


The  Mission  141 

erty  was  deeded  to  Miss  Sparks,  C.  L.  Bare, 
and  the  writer,  and  their  successors,  to  be  held 
in  trust  for  the  Woman's  Foreign  Missionary 
Society.  Miss  Sparks  retired  from  the  mis- 
sion in  1890,  Mr.  Bare  went  on  leave  to  Amer- 
ica, and  the  battle  with  the  Brahmans  was  left 
as  a  legacy  to  the  writer.  The  mission  lost 
the  case  in  the  subordinate  court  before  a 
Hindu  judge ;  it  was  appealed  to  a  higher  court 
and  the  decision  reversed  by  an  English  judge, 
when  it  was  again  appealed  to  the  High 
Court  and  the  latter  decision  confirmed 
thereby,  whereupon  an  application  was  made 
to  carry  the  matter  to  the  Privy  Council,  but 
the  application  was  not  entertained  and  the 
mission  remained  in  possession. 

In  1897  Miss  Scott,  M.D.,  joined  the  mis- 
sion and  was  sent  to  Brindaban.  For  a  time 
she  visited  Brindaban  from  Mathura,  and 
then,  at  great  personal  inconvenience,  lived  in 
a  native  house  in  the  town  of  Brindaban,  open- 
ing up  an  extensive  work  not  only  in  Brinda- 
ban, but  in  the  district  as  well,  and  gaining 
a  hold  upon  the  hearts  of  the  people.  In  that 
year  Mrs.  L.  A.  Calder,  of  Evanston,  Illinois, 
gave  money  to  build  a  Home  and  dispensary 
at  Brindaban,  to  be  called  the  Mabel  Colvin 
Memorial  Home  and  Dispensary.  These  build- 


142  Braj 

ings  were  completed  by  the  end  of  1898,  when 
they  were  formally  dedicated.  The  card  of 
invitation  to  the  dedication  read  as  follows: 
*'The  pleasure  of  your  company  is  requested 
at  the  opening  of  the  Mabel  Colvin  Memorial 
Home  and  Dispensary,  Brindaban,  on  Thurs- 
day, December  15,  at  3  p.  m.  A  special  train 
will  leave  Mathura  at  2  p.  m.,  returning  at 
5:15  p.  M.  The  Rev.  Colvin  S.  Valentine, 
F.R.C.S.E.,  LL.D.,  Principal  of  the  Medical 
Missionary  Training  Institute,  Agra,  will  de- 
liver an  address."  There  was  a  large  company 
assembled  in  a  pavilion  erected  in  the  grounds 
adjoining  the  buildings  which  gave  good  at- 
tention to  the  excellent  address  delivered  by 
Dr.  Valentine.  The  buildings  were  then  for- 
mally dedicated,  after  which  the  company 
inspected  the  dispensary  and  partook  of  re- 
freshments on  the  veranda  of  the  Home.  It 
would  be  impossible  to  tell  of  all  the  good  work 
which  has  been  done  from  this  great  center 
during  the  past  ten  years.  Thousands  of  pa- 
tients have  been  treated,  hundreds  of  lives 
saved,  many  homes  opened  up  to  the  gospel, 
the  prejudices  of  ages  removed,  and  a  good 
influence  extended  not  only  in  the  town  but 
among  the  surrounding  villages.  Soon  a  hos- 
pital is  to  be  added  which  will  further  extend 


The  Mission  143 

the  influence  of  this  noble  institution.  Con- 
cerning his  visit  to  Brindaban  on  August  8, 
1 901,  Dr.  J.  E.  Robinson  wrote: 

''Another  pleasant  function  was  a  trip  to 
Brindaban  to  attend  the  dedication  of  the  first 
Methodist  Episcopal  church  to  be  erected  in 
that  place.  A  modest,  inexpensive  structure, 
with  walled  courtyard,  to  serve  as  church  and 
schoolhouse,  was  set  apart  for  the  service  of 
the  Triune  God  by  Bishop  Warne  with  appro- 
priate ceremony  according  to  the  ritual.  He 
afterward  administered  the  rite  of  baptism  to 
over  forty  persons,  not  exactly  the  'first  fruits' 
to  Christ  in  Brindaban,  but  a  portion  of  the 
advance  guard  of  a  great  multitude  of  people 
in  that  needy  region  who  are  to  be  gathered 
into  the  fold  of  Christ  in  the  near  future.  It 
was  a  pleasure  to  partake  of  the  hospitality  of 
the  Ladies'  Alission  Home  after  the  dedication, 
and  to  recall  the  story  of  the  protracted  strug- 
gle in  the  law  courts  to  secure  the  site  on 
which  it  stands.  By  the  final  decision  of  the 
High  Court  the  mission's  title  to  the  site  it 
had  lawfully  purchased  was  confirmed.  All 
deeply  regretted  the  absence  of  Miss  Dr. 
Scott,  whose  labors  in  connection  with  the  dis- 
pensary have  been  so  useful.  We  cannot  for- 
bear mentioning  the  noble  sacrifice  of  Miss 


144  S^AJ 

Scott  and  other  ladies  when  the  epidemic  of 
cholera  broke  out  in  the  famine  girls'  orphan- 
age at  Ajmere,  in  charge  of  Miss  Marks  and 
Miss  Tryon,  and  fifty,  including  the  matron, 
died.  This  necessitated  the  removal  of  the 
whole  establishment  to  a  cholera  camp  in  a 
jungle  four  miles  from  the  orphanage  dormi- 
tories. Joined  by  Miss  Scott  from  Brindaban, 
the  ladies  named,  together  with  their  assist- 
ants, heroically  fought  the  fell  disease  and 
endured  without  flinching  the  indescribable 
hardships  of  the  camp,  happily  saving  most 
of  the  women  and  children.  Subsequently 
Miss  Scott  was  shut  up  in  an  old  disused  cot- 
ton press  with  several  hundreds  of  emaciated 
creatures  for  several  months,  living  in  a  go- 
down  (outhouse)  and  subsisting  on  scanty 
vegetable  diet.  At  last,  worn  out  with  work, 
care,  and  anxiety,  she  was  stricken  down  with 
enteric  fever  and  dysentery,  with  which  she 
fought  for  weeks,  finally  gathering  sufficient 
strength  for  a  voyage  to  America,  where  after 
many  months  her  health  was  restored. 

"A  pleasant  feature  of  the  work  at  Brinda- 
ban is  the  annual  Christian  mela  in  March  of 
every  year,  instituted  some  years  ago  by  Dr. 
Scott.  Over  a  hundred  workers,  belonging 
to  five  or  six  different  missions,  spend  a  week 


The  Mission  145 

together  in  blessed  service  for  their  common 
Lord.  Meetings  are  held  daily  in  a  large 
central  tent,  and  preaching  is  carried  on  from 
a  dozen  different  centers  in  the  mela.  Who 
can  estimate  the  good  accomplished  by  this 
united  effort  among  the  thronging  thousands 
from  many  parts?" 

5.  The  School  of  the  Prophets.  This  would 
not  be  a  complete  account  of  the  Mathura 
mission  without  some  reference  to  the  School 
of  the  Prophets,  or  Summer  School,  held  an- 
nually at  Mathura  in  the  hot  season  for  the 
purpose  of  training  the  lower-grade  workers 
of  the  district.  The  workers  of  this  class,  both 
men  and  women,  are  called  in  in  July  and 
August  and  pursue  a  course  of  study  under 
the  tuition  of  the  older  and  more  experienced 
workers  and  attend  lectures  given  by  experts, 
and  at  the  close  of  the  school  are  examined 
and  graded  accordingly.  The  Mathura  Sum- 
mer School  was  perhaps  among  the  very  first 
schools  of  this  class,  which  are  now  being 
held  in  almost  every  district  in  North  India 
with  great  profit.  In  1891  the  missionary  at 
Mathura  wrote  about  his  convention,  which 
subsequently  became  the  more  elaborate 
School  of  the  Prophets,  which  often  contin- 
ued in  session  for  six  weeks: 


146  Br A J 

"I  had  to  hurry  home  from  A j  mere  to  at- 
tend the  Workers'  Convention,  which  con- 
vened in  Mathura  at  six  o'clock  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  twentieth  of  May,  and  closed  on  the 
twenty-fifth.  This  convention  was  most  in- 
teresting and  profitable  throughout.  Great 
harmony  prevailed,  and  the  spiritual  fervor 
seemed  to  increase  constantly  to  the  close. 
Dr.  Hoskins,  J.  Lyon,  Miss  Rowe,  Mrs.  Scott, 
and  Dr.  Sheldon  were  present  throughout,  and 
contributed  much  to  the  profit  of  the  occasion. 
Three  hours  of  solid  normal  work  were  done 
in  the  morning,  and  the  evenings  were  given 
up  to  lectures.  The  free  discussions,  the  criti- 
cisms, the  questions  called  forth,  the  informa- 
tion given,  the  enthusiasm  manifested  through- 
out, must  be  left  to  the  reader's  imagination. 
The  five  services  on  Sunday  and  the  two  Quar- 
terly Conferences  of  Monday  were  occasions 
of  great  profit,  spiritually  and  practically. 
This  convention  will  have  greater  influence 
upon  our  work  than  an  Annual  or  a  District 
Conference.  It  demonstrates  what  can  be  done 
in  the  hot  weather.  It  helps  to  keep  us  all 
active  the  year  round.  The  older  preach- 
ers enjoyed  it  as  a  time  of  mental  stimulus, 
and  the  young  converts  fairly  shone  under 
the  light  which  they  got.     It  cost  Mathura 


The  Mission  147 

only  about  six  rupees,  and  she  got  paid  back 
many  fold  in  the  good  received  by  her  own 
people. 

'In  July  and  August,  1893,  the  School  of 
the  Prophets  was  held  at  Mathura.  This 
school  formally  opened  on  Monday,  the  ninth 
of  July,  and  was  continued  until  the  thirteenth 
of  August,  or  thirty-five  days,  concluding  with 
an  examination.  The  personnel  of  the  school 
is  interesting.  The  men  came  from  Agra,  Ali- 
garh,  Mathura,  Bharatpur,  Digg,  Hathras, 
and  about  twenty  other  places  in  the  Agra 
District.  They  were  mostly  sweeper  Chris- 
tians, with  a  few  Chumars  and  several  from 
the  higher  castes,  and  only  one  from  among 
the  Mohammedans.  There  were  not  half  a 
dozen  of  them  who  were  Christians  five  years 
ago.  Some  of  them  had  been  Christians  six 
months.  One  man  had  not  been  converted  a 
month.  There  was  one  man  who  was  at  least 
seventy  years  of  age.  One  man  was  entirely 
blind,  and  another  had  only  one  eye  that  w^ould 
work.  But  both  these  men  were  among  the 
best  in  the  class.  The  blind  man,  especially, 
had  a  wonderful  memory.  Nearly  all  the  men 
had  completed  the  first  book  in  Hindi  when 
they  joined  the  school.  Most  of  them  had 
learned   to    read   after   becoming   Christians. 


148  Bra  J 

They  were  all  well-dressed,  well-behaved,  and 
exceedingly  anxious  to  learn. 

''Some  forty-five  teachers  and  exhorters 
availed  themselves  of  the  privilege  of  attend- 
ing the  school.  In  addition  to  these  there 
were  five  local  preachers,  and  the  evening  lec- 
tures were  attended  by  the  twelve  ^members 
of  the  Bible  Woman's  Training  School.  Some 
of  the  wives  of  the  pastor-teachers  and  ex- 
horters also  came  with  their  husbands  and 
were  taught  separately.  So  that  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  between  sixty  and  seventy  were 
reached  and  helped  by  the  school.  The  fi- 
nances of  the  school  were  easily  managed. 
The  pay  of  the  men  was  allowed  to  run  on, 
and  the  only  additional  expense  incurred  was 
the  cost  of  coming  and  going  to  and  from  the 
school,  and  about  seven  rupees  for  grass,  mat- 
ting, books,  slates,  etc.  During  the  progress 
of  the  school  useful  and  interesting  lec- 
tures were  given  to  the  men  by  Dr.  Scott,  of 
Bareilly,  and  by  Brother  Clancy,  of  Allahabad. 
This  school  has  done  the  district  great  good, 
not  only  in  the  amount  of  instruction  imparted, 
but  in  unifying  and  stimulating  the  workers, 
and  in  creating  an  esprit  de  corps  that  could 
only  come  by  being  together  daily  for  a  month 
and  a  half.    This  special  school  was  followed 


The  Mission  149 

by  a  Workers'  Convention  for  everybody  and 
by  a  District  Epworth  League." 

The  editor  of  the  Indian  Witness  wrote  con- 
cerning this  school  in  August,  1901,  as  fol- 
lows: 

'*We  cannot  close  this  article  without  a  brief 
reference  to  the  Summer  School  conducted  by 
Presiding  Elder  Scott  for  five  or  six  weeks 
every  rainy  season.  Scores  of  workers  of  all 
grades,  local  preachers,  exhorters,  pastor 
teachers,  etc.,  come  in  from  the  surrounding 
villages  and  go  through  a  vigorous  process  of 
solid  instruction  in  biblical  knowledge  and 
methods  of  work,  during  parts  of  July  and 
August.  It  was  our  fortune  to  be  present  at 
the  closing  exercises  of  this  successful  School 
of  the  Prophets  on  the  seventh  of  August. 
Nearly  a  hundred  pastor-teachers  and  ex- 
horters, with  a  number  of  their  wives,  were 
in  attendance  for  five  busy  weeks.  They 
came  from  a  wide  extent  of  territory,  nearly 
every  one  the  fruit  of  the  mission  work  of 
the  past  few  years.  It  was  interesting  to  look 
into  the  faces  of  these  people  who  are  the 
teachers  of  nearly  ten  thousand  village  Chris- 
tians. No  wonder  the  presiding  elder  looks 
upon  this  department  of  his  work  with  pe- 
culiar anxiety  as   well  as  gratification.     No 


150  Bra J 

wonder  he  puts  himself  into  it  body  and  soul, 
and  works  it  for  all  it  is  worth.  He  wisely 
recognizes  it  as  a  means  of  unifying  and 
solidifying  the  work  and  of  filling  the  workers 
with  a  most  helpful  esprit  de  corps.  The 
success  of  this  Summer  School  plan  has  been 
most  pleasantly  demonstrated  in  many  dis- 
tricts of  northern  India.  The  man  who  dis- 
covered it  should  have  a  statue  erected  in  his 
honor." 

6.  School  for  Evangelist  Teachers.  Many 
of  the  workers  get  their  training  in  this  school, 
keeping  up  their  studies  throughout  the  year 
under  the  direction  of  their  preacher  in  charge. 
In  a  large  work  like  this  Mathura  Mission, 
extending  over  parts  of  three  civil  districts,  it 
was  necessary  to  multiply  the  number  of 
workers  who  could  teach  the  simple  village 
people  in  their  homes.  These  were  called 
pastor-teachers,  combining  the  functions  of 
the  pastor  and  the  teacher  in  each  village 
Christian  community  or  among  several  vil- 
lages to  which  he  had  been  assigned.  In  order 
to  train  such  workers  a  Training  School  for 
Evangelist  Teachers  was  started  at  Mathura, 
having  a  course  of  study  extending  over  two 
years  and  affording  opportunities  for  practical 
work  in  the  wards  of  the  city  and  in  the  sur- 


The  Mission  151 

rounding  villag-es,  under  the  direction  of  an 
experienced  teacher.  Mr.  Blackstone  took  a 
great  interest  in  this  school,  and  entirely  sup- 
ported it  from  his  own  and  the  contributions 
of  friends  for  a  number  of  years. 

7.  The  Melas.  Another  great  evangelistic 
agency  especially  emphasized  in  the  IMathura 
Mission  is  the  camp  meeting.  The  camp  meet- 
ing falls  in  with  native  custom.  The  great 
religious  melas  of  India  keep  alive  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  past,  unite  the  people  in  their  wor- 
ship, instruct  them  in  their  religion,  and  arouse 
in  them  zeal  and  enthusiasm  for  worship.  The 
great  Ganges  bathing  festivals  and  the  melas 
of  Benares,  Hardwar,  Mathura,  and  Brinda- 
ban  are  institutions  of  the  country,  and  are 
looked  upon  by  the  Hindus  as  a  part  of  their 
life.  The  Christian  camp  meeting  is  just  as 
essential,  and  has  in  this  congenial  soil  a  won- 
derful future.  As  soon  as  the  Christians  about 
Mathura  and  Hathras  commenced  to  multiply 
the  camp  meeting  was  started.  The  first  one, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  held  at  Hathras  on 
October  8  to  10,  1889,  and  was  continued 
at  that  place  annually  thereafter  for  a  number 
of  years,  and  became  famous.  They  were 
especially  noteworthy  between  1 891  (when 
the  Agra  and  Kasganj  Districts  were  organ- 


152  Bra J 

ized)  and  1897,  in  which  latter  year  the  sep- 
aration of  AHgarh  into  a  separate  district 
threw  Hathras  out  of  the  center.  After  1897 
the  camp  meeting  was  held  annually  at  Ma- 
thura  except  in  1901,  when  the  Kasganj  and 
Mathura  Districts  again  united  at  Hathras. 
Mr.  Blackstone,  who  was  ever  the  friend  of 
every  form  of  evangelistic  work,  and  who, 
besides  providing  Mathura  with  buildings,  had 
generously  supported  the  Training  School, 
and  provided  funds  to  build  much-needed  vil- 
lage chapels  and  support  for  a  large  number 
of  pastor-teachers,  generously  came  forward 
and  supplied  the  district  with  two  large  camp 
meeting  tents,  one  for  the  general  work  and 
the  other  for  the  Woman's  Conference.  Into 
this  larger  tent  were  often  gathered  a  thou- 
sand or  twelve  hundred  Christians  seated  on 
the  carpet  with  which  the  ground  was  covered. 
In  the  development  of  the  Mathura  work  the 
camp  meeting  was  an  element  of  power.  Con- 
cerning the  Hathras  camp  meeting  held  in 
1892  the  following  telegram  was  sent  from  the 
campground  to  the  Indian  Witness : 

"Hathras  Christian  mela  began  November 
29 — closed  December  5 — between  five  and  six 
hundred  Christians  present.  Agra  and  AH- 
garh District  Conferences  assigned  about  three 


The  Mission  153 

hundred  workers  to  their  various  fields — 
many  more  laborers  needed  to  keep  up  with  the 
growing  demand.  The  Conferences  were  har- 
monious and  the  reports  interesting — about 
five  thousand  baptisms  this  year,  to  date.  The 
Christian  community  has  more  than  doubled. 
Given  the  additional  needed  workers,  thou- 
sands more  would  have  been  baptized.  All  in 
the  work  believe  it  is  of  God  and  must  suc- 
ceed. The  religious  services  were  full  of 
freshness,  Hfe,  and  power;  the  prayers  were 
very  fervent,  and  the  testimonials  as  to  the 
spiritual  life  original,  simple,  and  marked  with 
much  clearness.  Quite  a  number  professed 
spiritual  conversion.  The  oldest  workers  pres- 
ent claimed  they  had  never  seen  a  7nela  with 
so  much  spiritual  interest.  The  workers  went 
forth  with  renewed  and  strengthened  purpose 
to  labor  for  the  spiritual  regeneration  of  the 
converts  coming  in. 

"From  the  ninth  to  the  sixteenth  of  Novem- 
ber, 1891,  the  District  Conference  and  Isai 
mela  (camp  meeting)  was  held  at  Hathras 
city.  The  first  two  days  were  given  up  to 
examinations,  the  third  and  fourth  to  Confer- 
ence work,  and  the  rest  of  the  time  to  camp 
meeting  services.  I  had  the  honor  of  preach- 
ing the  opening  sermon  on  Monday  evening 


154  Braj 

and  dedicating  the  splendid  new  tent  kindly 
put  at  our  disposal  for  the  meeting  by  Dr. 
Parker.  Presiding  Elders  H.  R.  Khan  and 
Butcher  preached  on  Tuesday  and  Thursday 
evenings,  and  Brother  Lyon,  of  A j mere,  on 
Wednesday  evening.  Thereafter  there  were 
four  services  a  day,  as  well  as  the  District 
Conference,  under  the  direction  of  Bishop 
Thoburn.  Bishop  Thoburn  took  the  morning 
services  at  8  o'clock ;  Dr.  Hoskins  led  meetings 
for  new  Christians  at  12  m.  At  3  P.  M.  serv- 
ices were  led  by  Miss  Rowe,  Dr.  T.  J.  Scott, 
and  Dr.  Sheldon.  On  Saturday  the  District 
League  was  held  at  12  m.,  and  a  temperance 
meeting,  led  and  addressed  by  Dr.  T.  J.  Scott, 
was  held  at  7  o'clock.  On  Sunday  the  love 
feast  was  held  by  H.  R.  Khan  at  8  a.  m.,  and 
the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  adminis- 
tered by  Bishop  Thoburn  at  7  p.  m.  Revs. 
Bateman  (C.  M.  S.)  and  Rockey  preached  on 
Friday  at  3  and  7  o'clock  p.  m.  respectfully. 
Mrs.  Scott  had  charge  of  the  music,  in  ren- 
dering which  the  Mathura  Training  School 
did  excellent  service.  Between  five  and  six 
hundred  Christians  were  in  attendance,  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  of  whom,  belonging  to 
Agra  and  Aligarh  Districts,  were  regular 
workers.     There   were   twenty-five   baptisms, 


The  Mission  155 

and  several  inquirers  came  forward  during 
the  meetings.  The  great  rush  was  on  the  last 
day,  when  not  fewer  than  a  thousand  Hindus 
crowded  the  tent,  and  preaching  was  kept  up 
for  six  hours,  when  the  people  were  quietly 
dismissed.  The  camp  meeting  has  been  a  great 
blessing.  Our  new  converts  have  been  greatly 
helped.  Our  workers  have  been  filled  with 
zeal  for  the  cause ;  we  have  been  able  to  plan 
for  larger  things,  and  our  whole  work  has 
been  strengthened  and  unified." 

Bishop  Thoburn  was  present  for  several 
days,  and  wrote  about  it  in  his  Notes  by  the 
Way  as  follows: 

"Hathras,  November  ii,  1891. — I  reached 
this  place  yesterday  about  one  o'clock,  and 
found  Dr.  J.  E.  Scott  waiting  for  me  at  the 
station.  As  the  train  was  slowing  up  I  noticed 
the  camp  of  two  District  Conferences,  which 
were  to  meet  at  this  place,  with  the  words 
'Isai  Mela'  printed  in  large  characters  on  a 
piece  of  white  bunting  fronting  the  railway. 
A  drive  of  a  quarter  of  a  mile  brought  us  to 
the  camp,  where  I  found  kind  friends  and 
abundant  hospitality. 

'The  two  districts  of  Agra  and  Aligarh 
hold  their  Conferences  here,  meeting  in  joint 
session  at  times,  but  for  the  most  part  sitting 


156  Braj 

separately.  The  Rev.  J.  E.  Scott,  Ph.D.,  is 
presiding  elder  of  the  former,  and  the  Rev. 
Hasan  Raza  Khan  of  the  latter.  Both  men  are 
new  to  their  office,  and  both  the  districts  are 
also  new,  having  only  been  organized  in  Janu- 
ary of  the  present  year.  The  Rev.  J.  Lyon, 
of  Ajmere,  is  also  here,  and  also  Miss  Dr. 
Sheldon  and  the  ladies  of  the  Deaconess  Home 
at  Mathura.  The  membership  of  each  Con- 
ference at  the  opening  this  morning  was  nearly 
fifty,  the  Aligarh  District  being  a  little  in 
advance  of  the  Agra. 

*The  brethren  of  both  districts  are  to  a  great 
extent  new  men.  Some  of  them  had  been  bap- 
tized since  the  beginning  of  the  year.  It  was 
at  times  a  litde  touching  when  the  examina- 
tions of  such  men  wei  e  reported.  The  brother, 
perhaps,  had  failed  on  nearly  everything. 
'How  long  since  you  were  baptized  ?'  I  would 
ask.  'About  fifteen  1  nonths,  sahib  ;'  or,  'About 
nine  months,  sahib.'  *Were  you  able  to  read  or 
write  then?'  'No,  .sahib,  not  at  all.'  'And 
you  have  learned  to  read  and  have  prepared 
part  of  your  examination  since  you  became  a 
Christian?'  'Yes,  sahib.'  One  or  two  of  these 
men  had  made  remarkable  progress.  The  new 
workers  are  not  all  here.  Perhaps  one  half 
or  more  have  been  unable  to  come.     Their 


The  Mission  157 

pay  is  small — four  or  five  rupees — and  they 
live  at  a  distance. 

''Monday,  November  16. — Dr.  T.  J.  Scott 
arrived  in  our  camp  on  Saturday  afternoon, 
and  in  the  evening  held  a  successful  meeting 
in  the  interests  of  temperance,  in  the  broad 
sense  of  abstinence  from  drink,  opium,  charas, 
bhang,  and  tobacco.  The  large  pavilion  was 
well  filled,  and  all  listened  with  close  interest 
to  Dr.  Scott's  address.  x\t  the  close  blue  and 
red  ribbons  were  produced,  and  all  who  were 
willing  to  pledge  themselves  to  abstinence 
from  intoxicating  drink  were  asked  to  accept 
a  badge  of  blue.  A  large  number  responded, 
and  for  a  time  much  enthusiasm  prevailed.  A 
very  perceptible  lull,  however,  followed  when 
the  red  badges  were  produced,  and  it  was 
explained  that  these  included  both  drink  and 
tobacco.  For  a  minute  or  two  there  was  an 
ominous  silence,  but  when  one  rose  others  took 
courage,  and  after  a  short  time  a  goodly  num- 
ber were  adorned  with  the  badge  of  the  'Lai 
Fita  Faiif  (Red  Ribbon  Army). 

"The  love  feast  was  held  at  8  a.  m.  yester- 
day, and  was  a  very  interesting  occasion. 
Many  of  those  present  bore  their  testimony 
for  the  first  time  in  the  presence  of  so  large 
a  congregation.     The  people  were  more  than 


158  Braj 

willing  to  speak.  Many,  including  myself, 
failed  to  get  an  opportunity  to  say  even  a  word, 
and  the  meeting  closed  with  two  or  three  on 
their  feet  waiting  for  their  turn.  Some  of  the 
testimonies  were  more  or  less  crude,  but  others 
were  extremely  interesting.  The  brethren 
from  Ajmere,  or  the  'Rajwaris,'  as  they  call 
themselves,  were  the  most  ready  speakers. 
Some  of  them  used  the  ordinary  Hindi  idiom, 
but  for  the  most  part  it  required  close  atten- 
tion to  get  their  meaning.  Many  of  them  had 
put  on  the  blue  ribbon  the  night  before,  while 
a  few  wore  the  red.  The  recent  converts,  for 
the  most  part,  do  not  seem  to  be  very  faithful 
patrons  of  the  bath,  but  they  will  become  more 
cleanly  as  the  months  and  years  go  by.  Per- 
haps twenty  or  more  testified  that  they  had 
found  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  since  coming 
to  this  meeting.  A  frequent  form  of  testimony 
would  be  something  like  this:  'I  first  heard 
the  gospel  at  such  a  place.  I  felt  the  work  in 
my  heart  and  was  baptized  at  such  and  such 
a  time  and  place.  I  escaped  from  the  devil 
and  all  my  sins,  and  began  to  lead  a  new  life.i 
Then  at  such  a  time  I  found  Christ  in  my  heart, 
and  now  I  love  him  and  am  glad  to  serve 
him.' 

"In  the  evening  we  had  a  most  impressive 


The  Mission  159 

communion  service.  The  people  were  seated 
in  rank,  leaving  an  open  space  between  the 
lines,  and  instead  of  calling  them  forward  to 
receive  the  bread  and  wine  the  sacred  symbols 
were  taken  to  them  by  eight  officiating  minis- 
ters. A  large  crowd  of  Hindus  from  the  town 
stood  looking  upon  the  scene  in  the  most  per- 
fect silence.  Nothing  since  the  beginning  of 
the  meetings  has  seemed  to  make  as  deep  an 
impression  upon  the  spectators,  who  attend  in 
large  numbers. 

"This  mxorning  I  had  charge  of  the  meeting 
and  was  preaching  to  the  people  on  prayer, 
when  I  noticed  that  Hindus  were  coming  in 
by  groups  and  gradually  filling  the  entrance. 
I  changed  the  subject  and  preached  a  sermon 
better  suited  to  them.  They  continued  to 
press  in,  and  I  preached  till  I  was  tired.  The 
people  were  packed  in  front  like  so  many  her- 
rings, such  an  audience  as  I  have  seldom  seen. 
Dr.  Hoskins  took  my  place,  and  was  followed 
by  Dr.  Scott,  a  good  deal  of  singing  being  in- 
terspersed among  the  addresses.  For  a  long 
time  the  people  listened  in  perfect  silence,  but 
at  last  rose  and  left.  Others,  however,  took 
their  place,  and  as  I  write  the  meeting  is  still 
in  progress.  The  people  have  probably  come 
from  some  mela  or  other  gathering,  as  unusual 


i6o  ^  Braj 

numbers  are  passing  along  the  road.  I  have 
seldom  witnessed  a  more  interesting  meeting 
thus  far,  and  the  end  is  not  yet. 

"P.  S. — After  the  above  was  written  I  re- 
mained on  the  ground  all  day,  and  I  learned 
the  cause  of  the  unusual  concourse.  It 
chanced  to  be  a  Hindu  holiday,  and  the  people 
having  leisure  flocked  out  of  the  city,  and 
crowded  not  only  our  pavilion  but  all  the 
space  in  front  all  day  long.  It  was  an  extraor- 
dinary spectacle,  and  the  day's  work  was  ex- 
traordinary in  every  respect." 

In  1897  Bishops  Foss  and  Thoburn  and  Dr. 
Goucher  attended  the  Hathras  camp  meeting. 
More  than  a  thousand  people  were  in  attend- 
ance, and  at  the  close  Bishop  Foss  and  Dr. 
Goucher  baptized  more  than  one  hundred  can- 
didates. In  1 89 1  many  camp  metings  were 
held  in  different  parts  of  the  district.  In 
March  occurred  the  Brindaban  mela,  when 
there  was  not  only  preaching  to  the  non-Chris- 
tians but  meetings  were  held  daily  for  the  large 
number  of  Christian  workers.  In  May  a  series 
of  meetings  were  held  at  Hathras  attended  by 
a  maximum  of  four  hundred.  In  July  and 
August  were  held  at  Mathura  the  School  of 
the  Prophets  and  the  District  Convention. 
During  the  last  week  of  November  the  Ma- 


The  Mission  i6i 

thura  District  Conference  was  held,  followed 
by  a  Christian  mela  attended  by  a  large  num- 
ber from  Mathura,  Agra,  and  Kasganj.  These 
were  times  of  refreshing. 

8.  Years  of  Toil.  The  years  since  1888  had 
been  years  of  hard  work,  much  anxiety,  and 
much  success.  As  far  back  as  1891  the  work 
was  hindered  for  lack  of  workers.  In  that 
year  the  missionary  wrote : 

''The  lack  of  workers  hinders  us.  We  can- 
not follow  up  the  work.  We  have  to  make  our 
workers  as  we  go  along.  'Growing  pains'  are 
certainly  better  than  paralysis — more  endur- 
able and  not  dangerous — but  in  some  respects 
distressing,  nevertheless.  We  need  more  or- 
dained men  who  can  administer  the  sacraments. 
A  few  weeks  ago  I  had  to  travel  sixty  miles 
one  day  in  an  ekka  to  reach  a  community  that 
desires  to  become  Christian.  One  little  native 
pony  dragged  me  the  whole  distance,  and  did 
not  seem  so  tired  as  I  was  when  we  got  back. 
We  found  our  inquirers  living  in  a  hamlet 
surrounded  with  water  which  had  risen  around 
the  place  in  the  rains.  I  mounted  a  pony  and 
was  soon  over  the  water  safely.  The  native 
brother  with  me  was  not  so  fortunate,  for, 
attempting  to  ride  over  on  the  shoulders  of 
a  friend,  he  fell  into  the  water  and  so  waded 


1 62  Br  A  J 

to  the  other  side.  Usually  we  have  to  go  to 
the  people,  sometimes  long  distances,  in  order 
to  reach  them ;  but  recently  I  had  a  case  when 
a  man  came  to  the  mission  house  from  a  vil- 
lage for  baptism,  not  willing  to  await  the 
visit  of  the  missionary.  He  and  his  friends 
had  been  inquirers  for  some  time,  but,  no  or- 
dained man  being  within  reach,  he  said  to  the 
native  preacher,  Take  me  to  the  Padri  Sahib, 
for  I  want  to  acknowledge  Christ  and  be 
known  as  a  Christian  now/  And  so  he  came 
just  as  the  evening  shades  were  appearing.  I 
spread  a  carpet  on  the  veranda,  and  kneeling 
down  we  asked  God  to  bless  us,  and  upon  the 
profession  of  his  faith  I  performed  the  rite, 
and  he  went  away  a  happy  man.  A  Christian 
church  has  been  organized  in  his  community." 

There  were  now  inquirers  on  every  hand, 
and  there  had  been  nearly  two  thousand  bap- 
tisms during  the  year.  It  was  almost  impos- 
sible to  follow  up  the  work.  What  with  build- 
ing at  Mathura,  and  the  chaplaincy  of  the 
troops,  and  lack  of  funds,  the  missionary  found 
his  strength  taxed  to  the  uttermost  as  he  went 
from  village  to  village  organizing  the  work, 
teaching  the  people,  and  gathering  in  the 
harvest.    In  1895  the  missionary  wrote : 

"Living  in  about  three  hundred  villages  in 


The  Mission  163 

these  eleven  circuits  are  about  six  thousand 
Christians  who  have  put  themselves  under 
our  teaching.  Who  are  these  people  who  have 
come  to  us  ?  For  the  most  part  they  are  sim- 
ple villagers.  They  come  from  the  lower 
castes.  They  are  illiterate.  Not  one  in  a 
hundred  can  read.  They  are  unspeakably  poor. 
As  a  rule  they  own  no  property.  For  the  most 
part  they  work  in  the  fields,  and  are  paid  in 
kind.  Hence  the  golden  age  of  self-support 
will  never  be  brought  in  by  cash  collections. 
Many  of  these  people  never  see  money.  They 
live  from  hand  to  mouth,  with  very  little  in 
the  hand.  These  are  the  people  who  come  to 
us  and  say :  'We  want  to  be  taught.  We  want 
to  rise  higher.  We  want  to  escape  from  social 
ostracism  and  the  tyranny  of  caste.  We  want 
to  have  our  children  educated.'  Who  is  the 
man  who  dare  do  such  a  dastardly  thing  as  to 
quench  this  smoking  flax?  Sixteen  hundred 
people  on  this  district  have,  during  this  past 
year,  expressed  a  desire  to  be  Christians,  and 
have  received  the  rite  of  baptism.  I  would 
rather  have  fifteen  hundred  and  fifty  of  these 
come  out  blindly  than  by  my  indifference  or 
lack  of  faith  as  a  missionary  be  the  cause  of 
the  other  fifty  never  coming  out  at  all.  These 
people  are  in  earnest.     Some  of  them  have 


164  Br A J 

gone  to  prison,  the  subjects  of  false  accusa- 
tion, persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake ;  some 
have  been  beaten;  parents  have  lost  children, 
husbands  wives,  and  wives  husbands;  cultiva- 
tors have  been  turned  out  of  their  fields;  po- 
licemen have  lost  their  places,  village  watch- 
men their  hereditary  employment.  I  saw  five 
Christian  villagers  with  the  blood  streaming 
down  their  faces,  who,  out  of  pure  religious 
animosity,  were  set  upon  by  their  neighbors. 
I  rescued  from  prison  a  number  of  innocent 
Christian  men  who  had  been  sent  there 
through  the  perjury  of  fellow  townsmen.  But 
some  have  the  feeling  that  these  people  are 
so  low  down  morally  and  in  the  social  scale 
that  they  are  incapable  of  being  Christianized. 
Let  them  disabuse  their  mind  of  the  delusion. 
These  people  make  splendid  Christians.  They 
have  great  faith,  and  many  of  them  a  child- 
like trust  and  a  simplicity  in  worship  that 
puts  an  Occidental  to  shame.  Never  having 
really  prayed  before,  they  soon  learn  to 
breathe  the  very  spirit  of  prayer.  But  are 
they  capable  of  development  ?  Why  not  ?  Who 
are  some  of  the  leading  alumni  of  the  Theo- 
logical School?  Men  who  a  few  years  ago 
were  driving  conservancy  carts  or  sweeping 
the  streets.    Who  are  some  of  our  most  sue- 


The  Mission  165 

cessful  preachers  and  influential  pastors? 
Converted  sweepers  and  leather  dressers. 
The  fact  is  when  we  want  workers  we  take 
these  men  and  train  them.  These  are  the  men 
who  are  doing  the  work.  These  men  and 
women  out  in  the  villages,  among  the  people, 
coming  in  daily  contact  with  the  people, 
training  the  converts  but  little  newer  than 
themselves,  teaching  the  schools,  and  bringing 
in  inquirers,  are  the  men  and  women  who  but 
a  few  years  ago  were  raw  heathen,  at  the 
very  bottom  of  the  social  scale.  'Greater 
things  shall  ye  do  because  I  go  unto  my 
Father.' " 

9.  Woman's  Work.  The  work  of  the 
Woman's  Foreign  Missionary  Society  in  Ma- 
thura  began  in  1888.  Prior  to  this  the  native 
pastor's  wife  had  visited  a  few  houses  about 
her  home  in  a  social  way,  but  no  systematic 
religious  work  nor  secular  teaching  was  at- 
tempted. These  houses  were  also  outside  the 
city  proper.  Concerning  this  work  Mrs.  Scott 
wrote  as  follows: 

"It  was  only  after  repeated  efforts  we  at  last 
gained  admittance  to  zenanas  within  the  city 
limits.  In  this  initial  work  there  were,  how- 
ever, certain  things  in  our  favor,  such  as  the 
less  rigid  seclusion  of  women  always  found  in 


1 66  Bra  J 

strictly  Hindu  communities,  the  efforts  of  gov- 
ernment in  female  education,  and  a  little  ze- 
nana visiting  carried  on  by  Miss  Bland,  of 
Agra.  When  once  the  work  was  opened  we 
were  overwhelmed  with  invitations  from  all 
parts  of  the  city,  and  soon  forty  zenanas  were 
regularly  visited  and  taught,  while  many  more 
could  have  been  added  to  our  list  could  we 
have  taken  them.  A  good  school  was  also 
opened  for  high-caste  girls. 

"In  March  work  was  carried  on  among  the 
women  who  throng  the  Brindaban  mela.  In 
this  work  several  missionaries  from  a  distance 
assisted.  We  found  here  a  rare  opportunity 
for  woman's  work,  because  of  the  religious 
prominence  given  them  in  this  place.  Between 
eight  and  nine  thousand  Bengali  widows  re- 
side in  Brindaban  as  worshipers  of  Krishna, 
and  to  his  shrines  come  thousands  of  female 
pilgrims  annually.  The  idea  of  foreign  ladies 
working  for  the  spiritual  benefit  of  their  own 
sex  seemed  to  accord  so  naturally  with  the 
ideas  of  the  community  that  there  was  much 
less  unpleasantness  connected  with  our  labors 
than  is  usually  the  case  in  melas.  This  mela 
work  is  now  an  annual  event. 

"April  17  a  very  interesting  young  Brinda- 
ban widow  was  baptized,  a  Rajput,  and  the 


The  Mission  167 

first  fruits  of  these  'brides  of  Krishna/  After 
the  ceremony  she  was  sent  for  safety  to  the 
Widows'  Home  in  Lucknow. 

"In  May  the  new  work  in  Sikandra  Rao 
and  Hathras  was  inspected  and  found  satis- 
factory. The  statistics  in  these  two  places  at 
the  end  of  the  first  year  were  one  hundred 
zenanas  and  three  good  schools. 

"June  17  the  glad  news  was  received  that 
Mr.  Blackstone,  of  Chicago,  had  decided  to 
establish  his  Deaconess  Home  and  Training 
School  in  ^Mathura.  July  11  a  committee,  con- 
sisting of  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Parker,  the  Misses 
Blackmar,  English,  Divine,  Christiancy,  and 
ourselves,  met  to  select  the  site.  The  commit- 
tee were  unanimous  in  the  selection  of  the  one 
adjacent  to  the  Parent  Board  property,  but  on 
account  of  the  opposition  of  the  priests  this 
was  not  secured  until  November.  Upon  the 
acquisition  of  the  land  building  was  immedi- 
ately begun. 

"In  1889  Miss  Sparkes,  an  experienced  mis- 
sionary recently  returned  from  furlough,  was 
appointed  to  open  the  Deaconess  Home  and 
Training  School,  and  Miss  McDowell,  M.D., 
the  medical  work. 

"Miss  Sparkes  began  her  work  In  rented 
property,  and  the  very  first  year  had  three 


i68  Braj 

English  and  eight  native  students,  six  others 
having  been  refused  as  unfit  for  the  advanced 
training  of  an  institution  modeled  after  the 
Chicago  Training  School.  Miss  Sparkes  was 
ably  seconded  in  all  her  labors  by  her  asso- 
ciate deaconess,  Mrs.  Matthews,  who  after- 
ward at  one  time  was  superintendent  of  the 
institution,  and  who  gave  years  of  faithful 
service  to  Mathura. 

''Immediately  after  the  Brindaban  mela  of 
1889,  on  March  28,  the  memorial  stone  of  the 
new  building  was  laid  with  appropriate  cere- 
monies, conducted  by  the  presiding  elder,  Dr. 
Parker,  assisted  by  several  other  prominent 
missionaries.  That  evening  a  still  more  inter- 
esting event  occurred  in  our  drawing-room, 
when  two  more  Brindaban  widows  were  bap- 
tized.    It  was  a  very  impressive  service. 

"The  medical  work  under  Miss  McDowell, 
M.D.,  also  flourished  well  from  the  very  start. 
Her  dispensary  in  the  heart  of  the  city  was 
daily  thronged  with  patients.  Later  a  branch 
dispensary  was  opened  in  Brindaban;  besides, 
occasional  visits  were  made  to  Hathras. 

"July  I,  1 89 1,  a  boarding  school  for  girls 
was  opened  by  Miss  Sheldon,  M.D.,  to  meet 
the  needs  of  a  rapidly  growing  church.  At 
this  time  there  was  much  zenana  work  in  all 


The  Mission  169 

the  surrounding  towns,  but  gradually  it  was 
all  closed,  that  the  Bible  readers  might  give 
their  undivided  attention  to  the  training  of  the 
girls  and  women  in  our  Christian  community. 
In  Mathura,  however,  zenana  work  was  re- 
tained, its  continuance  being  essential  to  the 
normal  training  of  the  students  in  the  IMission 
Training  School.  In  Brindaban  it  was  also 
allowed  in  connection  with  medical  work. 
Non-Christian  schools,  however,  were  all  either 
closed  or  turned  over  to  other  missions.  We 
were  fortunate  in  being  able  to  give  the 
Church  of  England  Zenana  IMission  our  two 
high-caste  schools  in  Alathura. 

"On  May  20,  1891,  the  first  Summer  School 
was  held,  which  annual  gathering  has  been 
such  a  power  for  good  in  our  work  ever  since. 
Gradually  the  women  began  to  come  with 
their  husbands,  until  now  the  Woman's  De- 
partment is  quitC;,  if  not  more,  important  than 
the  men's.  Here  it  is  our  evangelist-teachers 
and  village  women  receive  their  best  training. 

"In  1897  Aliss  Scott,  ^I.D.,  was  appointed 
to  Brindaban  for  medical  work.  Formerly 
this  was  a  branch  of  the  IMathura  medical 
work,  but  now  it  was  to  be  the  center,  which 
was  wise,  for  a  more  strategic  place  could  not 
be  found,  because  of  the  resident  widows  and 


170  BraJ 

thronging  pilgrims.  On  account  of  having  no 
one  to  look  after  Brindaban  since  Miss  Shel- 
don's removal,  both  medical  and  zenana  work 
had  been  closed.  Miss  Scott,  therefore,  had 
to  begin  anew.  Her  first  two  years  were  full 
of  heroic  sacrifice,  first  in  going  to  and  fro 
from  Mathura  all  through  the  hot  season, 
sometimes  returning  at  i  or  2  p.  m.,  and  later 
living  in  a  native  house  in  Brindaban,  where, 
besides  inconvenience  and  heat,  she  was  com- 
pelled to  abstain  from  meat  and  other  articles 
of  diet  to  avoid  arousing  the  prejudices  of  her 
neighbors.  Needless  to  say,  she  has  won  the 
hearts  of  the  people  as  few  have  ever  done. 

*'The  latter  part  of  1898  her  new  Home 
and  dispensary,  the  gift  of  Mrs.  L.  A.  Calder, 
of  Evanston,  Illinois,  were  completed,  where- 
upon an  interesting  dedication  service  was 
held,  addressed  by  that  veteran  medical  mis- 
sionary Dr.  Valentine,  of  Agra.  These  build- 
ings stand  on  the  bit  of  land  which  the  priests 
tried  to  wrest  from  us,  and  which  was  fought 
through  from  the  subordinate  court  up  to  the 
Privy  Council. 

'The  Mission  Training  School  has  greatly 
prospered;  it  is  now  called  the  Blackstone 
Missionary  Institute.  During  the  respective 
superintendence  of  Miss  Sheldon,  M.D.,  Mrs. 


The  Mission  171 

Matthews,  Miss  Sullivan,  and  at  present  of 
Miss  Gregg,  important  additions  have  been 
made  to  the  buildings,  till  now  it  is  the  best 
equipped  training  institution  in  India.  Miss 
Gregg  was  for  years  vice-principal  of  the  Chi- 
cago Training  School,  hence  is  eminently  fitted 
for  the  position  she  holds,  as  is  also  her  as- 
sociate. Miss  McKnight,  formerly  a  teacher 
in  the  same  school.  The  Blackstone  Institute 
receives  patronage  from  all  denominations. 

"In  describing  the  beginning  of  work  and 
institutions  it  has  been  impossible  to  say  much 
about  those  who  have  carried  them  on  so  faith- 
fully. A  report  of  Mathura  would,  however, 
be  incomplete  without  reference  to  the  work 
of  the  Misses  Fistler  and  Baird,  of  the  Friends 
Mission,  who  gave  two  years  of  excellent  serv- 
ice to  the  Institute  and  medical  work ;  of  Miss 
Wright's  five  faithful  years  in  the  Boarding 
School  and  Institute;  of  Miss  Abbott's  effi- 
cient work  as  her  successor ;  of  Miss  Burman's 
self-denying  labors  in  Brindaban ;  of  Mrs. 
Clancy's  energetic  management  of  the  district 
work;  of  the  conscientious  service  of  a  whole 
host  of  able  assistants;  and,  lastly,  of  the  un- 
tiring work  of  our  deaconesses,  the  Misses 
Browne,  Johnstone,  and  Ogilvie. 

"Very  special  honor  must  also  be  accorded 


172  Braj 

to  the  incomparable  work  of  our  now  sainted 
Miss  Rowe.  Though  a  general  evangelist, 
much  of  her  time  was  spent  in  Agra  District. 
She  was  the  means  of  great  blessing  to  our 
native  church.  After  she  left  us  Miss  Sulli- 
van took  up  her  work,  and  did  us  good  service. 
**How  wonderful  God's  dealings  with  Ma- 
thura  !  From  nothing,  site  after  site  and  build- 
ing after  building,  have  been  given  as  need 
required,  while  meanwhile  the  superstructure 
of  a  living  temple  has  been  steadily  lifting  it- 
self in  beauty  before  our  eyes.  Many  mothers 
and  wives,  sisters  and  daughters,  find  an  hon- 
ored place  in  this  building  of  God,  that  his 
church  may  be  faultless  in  symmetry  for  the 
Master  Builder  to  behold." 


The  Mission  173 


III 

The  Establishment  of  a  Mission 

I.  Retrospection.  It  is  interesting  to  trace 
the  evolution  of  a  Christian  mission  in  the 
midst  of  such  environments.  Here  lay  in- 
trenched an  ancient  religion  strong  in  its 
multitudes  of  followers  and  in  its  hidebound 
customs  and  popular  traditions.  Here  was 
born  the  most  popular  of  all  the  gods  whose 
haunts  and  homes,  shrines  and  temples,  priests 
and  teachers,  were  found  on  every  hand 
throughout  the  land  of  Braj,  the  Vaishnava 
Holy  Land.  This  might  indeed  be  called 
a  hard  field,  but  in  this  uncongenial  soil  a 
growing  tree  has  been  planted,  and  it  has 
taken  root. 

In  the  year  1901,  thirteen  years  after  the 
mission  was  started,  with  Mathura  as  a  center 
and  reaching  out  into  every  large  town 
throughout  the  Vaishnava  Holy  Land,  exists 
and  lives  and  spreads  a  force  that  is  perma- 
nent and  cumulative.  In  the  beginning  of 
1888  the  mission  had  no  property,  no  schools, 
no  workers,  no  converts,  no  money — nothing 
but  two  hearts  full  of  courage  and  faith  and 


174  Braj 

zeal.  It  seemed  like  an  impossibility  to  get  a 
foothold  in  such  a  place ;  and  yet  within  three 
months  a  mission  house  was  being  built  within 
the  city  limits  on  land  owned  by  a  Chaube 
Brahman ! 

In  another  year  land  was  obtained  from  the 
same  source,  and  the  foundation  of  Black- 
stone  Missionary  Institute  well  and  truly  laid. 
In  a  short  time  land  was  bought  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  sacred  city  of  Mathura,  in  the 
midst  of  the  largest  temples,  and  Flora  Hall 
erected  thereon.  A  site  was  secured  in  Brin- 
daban,  where  Christians  were  denied  the  right 
to  own  property,  its  possession  secured  after 
a  five  years'  struggle  by  the  decision  of  the 
High  Court,  to  the  consternation  of  the  priests 
of  Krishna  and  the  wonder  of  the  people.  A 
cantonment  church  was  built,  a  schoolhouse 
and  dormitories  for  the  scholars,  and  an  addi- 
tional building  for  the  English  Training 
School.  The  best  of  all  is  that  all  these 
buildings  were  filled  and  were  rendered  neces- 
sary by  the  work.  There  had  grown  up  a  good 
Anglo-Vernacular  Middle  Grade  School  for 
boys  in  the  city  attended  by  Christians,  Hin- 
dus, and  Mohammedans,  a  girls'  school  of  like 
grade  occupied  the  dormitories  connected  with 
Gracie  Hall,  and  the  Training  Schools  were 


The  Mission  175 

flourishing.  The  work  was  not  confined  to 
^lathiira  city.  The  evangehsts  went  abroad 
and  preached,  and  in  a  short  time  the  work  at 
Hathras,  Brindaban,  Kosi,  Mahaban,  Bharat- 
piir,  Dig,  and  Saadabad,  as  well  as  Mathura 
itself,  had  developed  into  large  and  prosperous 
circuits.  Converts  multiplied.  The  little  one 
not  only  became  a  thousand,  but  eight  thou- 
sand. Bishop  Thoburn  wrote  to  the  Indian 
Witness  from  the  Hathras  camp  in  1891,  when 
this  work  was  just  getting  under  way : 

"Had  such  a  spectacle  been  seen  thirty 
years  ago  all  India  would  have  heard  of  it, 
and  missionaries  would  have  competed  for  the 
opportunity  of  hastening  to  them  with  help  and 
comfort.  Now,  however,  the  story  seems  to 
fall  on  leaden  ears,  and  cold  questions  are 
asked  about  the  motives  of  the  people,  the 
depth  of  their  convictions,  the  reality  of  the 
new  work,  and  so  on,  ending  with  the  remark 
that  they  are  one  and  all  low-caste  people! 
God  have  mercy  on  our  modern  Christians! 
Baptized  heathen  may  be  found  on  these 
plains,  but  the  Lord  in  mercy  save  us  from 
baptized  Pharisees  and  Levites,  who  have  mas- 
tered the  art  of  assuming  pious  airs  while 
passing  by  'on  the  other  side.'  The  other 
side!    Which  side?    God  preserve  intelligent 


176  Braj 

Christians  from  ranging  themselves  on  the 
side  of  Christ's  enemies  1 

"But  if  we  accept  these  calls  as  from  God 
what  a  responsibility  do  we  meet !  If  we  bap- 
tize these  people  we  only  begin  the  work 
among  them.  We  must  teach  them,  else  we 
shall  be  guilty  before  God.  Where  are  the 
teachers?  Where  the  resources  needed?  God 
will  provide.  He  who  knows  the  end  from 
the  beginning  has  already  marked  a  path- 
way out  of  all  these  difficulties.  We  should 
be  keenly  alive  to  a  full  sense  of  our  obliga- 
tions, but  we  need  not  borrow  troubles  in  ad- 
vance, nor  fight  lions  which  are  chained  by 
the  wayside." 

2.  District  Formed.  In  that  year  (1891) 
the  Agra  District  was  formed,  including  the 
three  centers  of  Agra,  A j mere,  and  Mathura. 
The  great  mass  of  the  Christians  were  about 
Mathura.  The  work  spread  into  such  pro- 
portions that  soon  it  became  necessary  to 
divide  the  territory  into  separate  presiding 
elders'  districts. 

Owing  to  the  rapid  development  of  the 
work,  frequent  adjustments  have  been  made. 
First,  in  1893,  the  work  in  Rajputana  was 
formed  into  the  Ajmere  District.  A  mission- 
ary was  sent  to  Aligarh  in  1894,  it  being  added 


The  Mission  177 

to  the  Agra  District.  When  the  writer  went 
there  to  rent  a  house  for  the  missionary  the 
Mohammedan  landlord  called  his  attention  to 
the  fact  that  the  house  under  inspection  with 
a  view  to  renting  was  near  the  cemetery,  re- 
marking with  a  smile  that  "the  mission  will 
need  this."  This  work  so  grew  that  in  1898 
it  was  set  apart  as  a  separate  district.  The 
civil  district  of  Sikandra  Rao,  on  the  north, 
had  previously  been  cut  off  and  added  to  the 
Kasganj  District.  In  1900  Agra,  with  four 
circuits,  was  separated  and  added  to  the 
Kasganj  District,  and  in  1902  the  work  in 
Rajputana,  which  had  been  in  1898  again 
added  to  Agra  District  for  administrative  pur- 
poses, was  again  separated  and  formed  into  a 
district. 

3.  Mathura  District.  Finally,  in  1902,  the 
eight  large  circuits  about  Mathura,  with  those 
about  Agra,  were  formed  into  the  Mathura 
District.  Braj,  the  Vaishnava  Holy  Land, 
had  become  a  presiding  elder's  district  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church!  In  thirteen 
years  all  this  work  had  grown  up,  and  the 
center  of  it  all  was  Mathura.  In  and  about 
Mathura  there  was  property  belonging  to  this 
mission  to  the  value  of  fifty  thousand  dollars 
and  more  than  eight  thousand  Christians.    In 


178  Braj 

1901  the  editor  of  the  Indian  Witness  visited 
Mathura,  and  wrote  editorially  concerning  it 
as  follows: 

'Two  days  at  the  sacred  and  historic  city 
of  Mathura,  constituting  a  third  visit  in  seven 
years,  were  full  of  inspiration  and  encourage- 
ment. The  history  of  the  planting  and  devel- 
opment of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  mission  at 
Mathura  sounds  almost  like  a  romance.  It 
appears  that  some  thirteen  years  ago  the  Rev. 
Dennis  Osborne,  then  stationed  in  the  north- 
west, in  visions  of  the  night  heard  a  voice 
distinctly  say,  'Send  a  missionary  to  Mathura.' 
The  deep  impression  made  by  this  message 
was  intensified  by  its  repetition  several  times 
during  the  night.  So  profoundly  impressed 
was  Mr.  Osborne  that  he  immediately  wrote 
to  Dr.  E.  W.  Parker  narrating  the  facts  and 
urging  that  steps  be  taken  to  'send  a  mission- 
ary to  Mathura.'  Dr.  Parker  had  no  wish  to 
be  'disobedient  to  the  heavenly  vision,'  as  he 
also  regarded  it,  and  strongly  advocated  the 
opening  of  a  mission  in  that  priest-ridden  cit- 
adel of  Hinduism.  Not  a  few  missionaries 
considered  the  proposal  an  unwise  one.  Even 
Bishop  Thoburn  thought  unfavorably  of  it, 
on  the  ground  that  it  was  unadvisable  to  open 
a  mission  in  one  of  the  strongest  centers  of 


The  Mission  179 

idolatry  in  the  whole  empire,  while  favorable 
openings  in  more  accessible  regions  were  ap- 
pearing on  every  hand.  A  missionary  might 
work  and  spend  time  and  money  for  twenty 
years,  it  was  feared,  without  accomplishing 
anything  in  such  a  place.  But  God  had  gra- 
cious purposes  concerning  Mathura,  and  all 
difficulties  finally  disappeared." 

The  editor  went  on  to  say :  "Mathura  is  held 
in  the  highest  repute  by  Hindus  of  all  castes 
and  classes  by  reason  of  its  having  been  the 
birthplace  of  Krishna,  the  most  popular  of  all 
the  Hindu  deities.  The  city  is  crowded,  and 
the  banks  of  the  sacred  Jamuna  are  lined  with 
temples  w^hose  revenues  and  endowments,  in 
many  instances,  are  enormous.  Pilgrims  from 
all  parts  visit  Mathura  to  bathe  in  the  sin- 
cleansing  ( ?)  waters  of  the  majestic  but 
muddy  river  that  in  the  rainy  season  sweeps 
past  in  mighty  volume  to  mingle  its  current 
with  the  equally  sacred  Ganges  at  Allahabad. 
Great  enrichment  accrues  to  the  numberless 
priests  of  Mathura  from  the  pilgrim  visitors, 
who  come  in  their  thousands  and  spend  money 
freely  ^t  the  behest  of  the  voracious  temple 
guardians.  A  few  miles  away  is  Brindaban, 
another  temple-crowded  city,  the  scene  of 
Krishna's  famous  exploits  by  which  his  moral 


i8o  Bra J 

reputation  has  been  blighted  beyond  redemp- 
tion." 

To  besiege  this  Sebastopol  of  Hindu  idolatry 
and  superstition  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  came  in  1888.  In  1891  Dr.  Robinson 
wrote  of  it: 

"By  judicious  methods,  embodying  a  large 
measure  of  courageous  faith  and  sanctified 
tact,  this  suggestive  mission  has  gone  on  step 
by  step  in  the  face  of  the  most  formidable 
obstacles  and  undaunted  by  the  really  great 
difficulties,  until  at  the  present  time  there  is 
a  mission  plant  at  Mathura  and  Brindaban  of 
which  any  mission  might  be  proud,  and  a  pros- 
perous work  is  in  progress  of  a  solid  character, 
with  abundant  promise  for  the  future." 

The  statistics  for  1900  of  the  district,  of 
which  Mathura  has  been  the  center  and  admin- 
istrative headquarters,  show: 

Mission  agents 286 

Pupils  in  day  schools 2,300 

Pupils  in  Sunday  schools 10,100 

Christian  community 10,000 

Baptisms 2,000 

Inquirers  under  instruction 8,000 

Value  of  property Rs.  168,124 

4.  Prospects.  To  this  interesting  land  of 
Braj  a  purer  faith  has  come.    The  gospel  will 


The  Mission  i8i 

supplant  the  Gita.  Christ  will  supersede 
Krishna.  The  Puranas — *'the  old  traditional 
tales" — must  be  laid  aside  for  the  narratives 
of  the  New  Testament,  and  the  Pushti  Marga, 
or  way  of  sensual  enjoyment,  for  the  way  of 
the  Lord.  The  preceding  pages  have  shown 
what  may  be  done  even  in  such  a  Vaishnava 
stronghold.  And  the  good  work  will  go  on, 
and  a  better  day  will  dawn. 

"  Yes,  it  shall  come!    E'en  now  my  eyes  behold, 
In  distant  view,  the  wished-for  age  unfold, 
So,  o'er  the  shadowy  days  that  roll  between, 
A  wandering  gleam  foretells  the  ascending  scene." 


